Moguls, models and members of Broadway’s elite gathered in New York City in March 2014, raising glasses in their black-tie best to toast a centuries-old student organization affiliated with Harvard University.
The club’s chair, Andrew Farkas, a billionaire and Harvard alumnus, posed with celebrities and then took the podium to welcome the evening’s guests.
Among them, in a place of honor, was a table for Jeffrey Epstein. Mr. Epstein had donated so much to the organization, the Hasty Pudding Institute, that he was listed that year as a significant sponsor and granted a table for eight guests, despite having been convicted six years earlier as a sex offender.
Mr. Epstein opted not to attend the fund-raising dinner — he notably avoided social events outside his own home. But he sent a contingent of evening-gown-clad young women in his place, according to emails released earlier this year by the Justice Department.
“sorry i wont be at your dinner, take care of my puppies,” Mr. Epstein wrote to Mr. Farkas, who responded: “I will miss you. Your puppies will have a ball. Tell them to come to the after party.”
The two men had a long, devoted friendship, which Mr. Epstein used to maintain a foothold at Harvard University years after the school banned him from making philanthropic gifts in 2008.
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