The fallout from the so-called Epstein files has touched law firms, universities, corporations and numerous foreign governments. Dozens of powerful people have been implicated in the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s web since the Justice Department released millions of emails, text messages and other documents in late January. And while investigators and journalists are still uncovering bombshells from the late billionaire’s correspondence, some of Epstein’s associates are beginning to face legal and professional consequences.
That includes people with ties to the Philadelphia region. Over the past two months, a University of Pennsylvania alum as well as business tycoons and academics who grew up in the area have become the subject of consequential inquires. In some cases, they have lost jobs over their dealings with Epstein, who was convicted in 2008 for procuring a minor for prostitution and was awaiting trial for sex trafficking children when he died by suicide in his jail cell in 2019.
This list will be updated as the investigations continue and does not include people with Philadelphia connections who are merely mentioned in the Epstein files. Below, we explain each person’s connections to Epstein and what’s happened since the Justice Department’s document dump earlier this year:
Larry Summers
Just last week, Harvard University announced that its professor and former president Larry Summers would resign at the end of the school year amid an ongoing Epstein probe. The graduate of Harriton High School in Rosemont worked for the Obama and Clinton administrations and had been on leave from the campus since November.
Summers is mentioned thousands of times in the Epstein files. His numerous text chains with Epstein include crass discussions of women and coded chatter about someone in Summers’ professional orbit, whom he was pursuing romantically. A spokesperson for Summers, who is married, said the woman in question was not a student.
The economist has experienced numerous repercussions for his friendly relationship with Epstein. The American Economic Association banned Summers for life in December, citing poor conduct “as reflected in publicly reported communications.”
Elisa New
Summers’ wife, Elisa New, a professor emerita at Harvard, appears repeatedly in the Epstein files, too. The Philly-born academic and former Penn professor exchanged emails with the disgraced financier about dinner dates and referenced past rides in his private jet. She also sought Epstein’s help with business ventures; multiple messages concern booking Epstein’s friend Woody Allen for a taped poetry reading. New discussed using the video in her literature courses and with her nonprofit Verse Video Education, which produced the “Poetry in America” series that New created and hosted. It debuted on PBS in 2018.
PBS scrubbed “Poetry in America” from its digital platforms and stopped airing it on its stations in December, after the Justice Department released New’s emails with Epstein. Arizona State University also ended its agreement with Verse Video Education that month. New had left Harvard in 2021 to run an educational media studio at ASU. The college has shuttered that studio.
Steve Tisch
New York Giants co-owner and Lakewood, New Jersey, native Steve Tisch has drawn scrutiny for a trove of emails he sent Epstein in 2013 about meeting women. In the messages, Tisch asks if his prospective dates are “pro or civilian” and Epstein reassures him that he will talk to a woman who was “a little freaked out by the age difference.” Tisch, 77, insisted in a statement that these conversations were about “adult women” and he never visited Epstein’s infamous private island.
“As we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with,” he said.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in early February that the organization “will look at all the facts” regarding Tisch’s associations with Epstein to evaluate what falls under the personal conduct policy. It is unclear whether he has launched a formal investigation and what, if anything, it has uncovered.
Jes Staley
Banking giant Jes Staley’s name appears nearly 8,000 times in the Epstein files. The former J.P. Morgan executive, whose family relocated to the Philly region for his father’s work at PQ Corporation, was the convicted sex offender’s “chief defender” at the company, according to the New York Times, even after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution and the federal government opened a human trafficking investigation. Staley encouraged his colleagues to turn a blind eye to Epstein’s suspicious wire transfers and cash withdrawals, the Times reported, before he left the company in 2013.
He resigned as CEO of Barclays in 2021 after British regulators opened inquiries into his relationship with Epstein. Now, with millions more documents circulating, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has called for federal probes into Staley and other banking executives. She recently gave the Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. a deadline of March 12 to announce investigations and provide answers to the Senate Banking Committee.
Marc Rowan
After graduating from Penn, future billionaire Marc Rowan took a job at the investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert. There he met Leon Black and 76ers co-owner Josh Harris, with whom he founded Apollo Global Management. All three men and their firm are now implicated in the ongoing Epstein scandal.
Black resigned as Apollo’s CEO after a probe into his financial dealings with Epstein. In his absence, Rowan took the reins, but some are now calling for an investigation into his own relationship with the reviled businessman.
Two teachers’ unions, which have investments in Apollo through their pension funds, asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate the firm’s “misleading” claims about its executives’ ties to Epstein in February. Though Apollo has painted Black as the company’s sole liability, the unions say, Rowan sent numerous emails to Epstein to schedule breakfast meetings, exchange business advice and discuss the potential sale of Rowan’s $18 million jet. These messages are cited in the SEC letter from the American Federation of Teachers and American Association of University Professors.
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