Epstein Data Wiki

Lawrence H. Summers

Properties2
tagsperson, economics, harvard, united-states-treasury
aliasesLarry Summers, Lawrence Summers

8 min read

OfficesUnited States Treasury Secretary, 1999–2001; President, Harvard University, 2001–20061
Harvard’s 2020 reviewFound no Harvard record of a reported $30 million Epstein pledge; confirmed a separate $6.5 million gift that established the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics in 20032
IPI’s Mongolian Presidential Advisory Board, 2014Proposed two meetings a year, consulting work, and a $100,000 annual honorarium once IPI’s contract with the Mongolian government was signed3
Deutsche Bank’s September 2019 exhibitLists L H Summers Economic Consulting LLC as recipient of two November 2014 wires from Southern Trust Company, $1,196 and $37, for “Travel Expenses”4
Statement, November 2025Deeply ashamed; took “full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein”; stepped back from public commitments5
American Economic Association, December 2, 2025Accepted his voluntary resignation; imposed a lifetime ban on his membership and on his participation in AEA activities6
Harvard, February 2026Remains on leave; will retire from his academic and faculty appointments at the end of the academic year7

Lawrence H. Summers is an economist who served as United States Treasury secretary and as president of Harvard University.1 The records described here concern decisions made and recorded by Harvard, the International Peace Institute (IPI), Deutsche Bank and, later, other institutions: meetings, an advisory appointment, an honorarium and travel expenses. In November 2025, responding to the release of later communications, Summers said he was deeply ashamed and took responsibility for his “misguided decision to continue communicating” with Epstein.5

Harvard’s gift record and review

The Harvard Crimson reported in February 2003 that Epstein had pledged $30 million to support Martin Nowak’s work at a meeting with Summers, then Harvard’s president, two weeks earlier.8 Harvard’s Office of the General Counsel and Foley Hoag reviewed the University’s Epstein records in 2020. Their report found that a $6.5 million Epstein gift established the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics in 2003, but said of the reported larger commitment: “We found no Harvard record of such a pledge.”2 The review is the University’s later institutional finding about its own records; its report does not discuss Summers’s wider correspondence with Epstein. The gifts and review are covered in context at Epstein and Harvard University.

IPI’s Mongolia work and travel paperwork

On January 23, 2014, a member of IPI’s staff sent Epstein a draft message for his comments before the institute sent it to Summers and other members of the Mongolian Presidential Advisory Board. The draft said that IPI had produced the board note, that the president of Mongolia had approved it that day, and that members’ working arrangements would be with IPI pending a formal contract with the Mongolian government. It proposed two meetings a year, consulting work and an annual $100,000 honorarium after the contract was signed.3 The document establishes what IPI proposed; it does not establish that the draft was sent unchanged or that the contemplated contract was signed.

The proposal followed a sequence of arrangements involving Summers and IPI president Terje Rød-Larsen. Epstein told both men on January 9 that a meeting with the Mongolian president was planned at Davos. After the time changed, Summers asked Epstein about its location and transport; Epstein replied that he would involve Rød-Larsen’s team directly. Lesley Groff’s Epstein-office schedule for January 24 then recorded Rød-Larsen meeting the president of Mongolia “per Larry Summers.”9 In May, IPI’s accountant Susan Waugh wrote to Epstein’s office that the institute had wired a February 28 payment to L H Summers Economic Consulting for Summers’s advisory-board honorarium, said “We need to obtain the W9 form,” and asked to be put in touch with his assistant; Epstein’s office replied that it had passed her information on to “Larry Summer’s office.” The message does not state the amount wired.10

Travel invoices for Summers’s flights to Kazakhstan originated with a travel agent and were forwarded to Epstein’s office by IPI staff. A March 2014 thread records that Epstein’s office had “originally received 3 invoices for same date, same name, same destination” and asked IPI to resend them; IPI’s Camilla Reksten-Monsen replied that there were three because “Mr. Summers had requested the flights be first class, which wasn’t available on all the flights at first, but then became available so we cancelled his original ticket and reissued the ticket to be all first class,” and supplied the corrected invoice. An Epstein-office email then asked Epstein to approve reimbursing IPI $14,158.88 from Enhanced Education, and he answered “yes.”11 This records approval of a reimbursement request, not proof that Enhanced Education made the payment.

Deutsche Bank’s 2019 presentation

Deutsche Bank prepared a presentation for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York dated September 12, 2019.12 The bank headed its Exhibit P “Notable Payments to High Profile Individuals.”13 The exhibit lists L H Summers Economic Consulting LLC as the recipient of two November 2014 wires from Southern Trust Company: $1,196 on November 7 and $37 on November 24. The bank recorded that the recipient “appears to be the consulting firm for Larry Summers, a former Harvard President and former Clinton/Obama Administration official,” and that the wire details indicated the payment was for “Travel Expenses.”4 The instruction behind the first of the two wires survives separately: on November 6, 2014, the day before, Darren Indyke signed a Deutsche Bank authorization to wire $1,195.65 from the Southern Trust Company account to L H Summers Economic Consulting LLC, giving “Travel Expenses” as the additional instruction.14 These are recorded as travel-expense payments; no document cited here connects them to the IPI arrangements.

Later response and institutional decisions

After further emails were made public in November 2025, Summers issued the statement quoted above and stepped back from public commitments.5 Harvard’s own comment at the time was narrower: the University said it was reviewing “individuals at Harvard” who were in the Epstein documents “to evaluate what actions may be warranted.”7 On December 2, the American Economic Association accepted his voluntary resignation and imposed a lifetime ban on his membership and participation in its activities. The AEA’s statement condemned his conduct “as reflected in publicly reported communications, as fundamentally inconsistent with its standards of professional integrity and with the trust placed in mentors within the economics profession,” and said it would not comment further “on individual matters or the specific considerations underlying this determination.”6 In February 2026, Harvard announced that Summers would remain on leave and retire from his academic and faculty appointments at the end of the academic year.7

Martin Nowak; Terje Rød-Larsen; Lesley Groff; International Peace Institute; Enhanced Education; Deutsche Bank; Southern Trust Company; Epstein and Harvard University.

Footnotes

  1. Collin Binkley, Associated Press, “Larry Summers will resign from teaching at Harvard during review of Epstein ties, university says,” February 25, 2026. https://apnews.com/article/e4075897230bb917f1c2f3286682e9b8 ↩ ↩2

  2. Diane E. Lopez, Ara B. Gershengorn and Martin F. Murphy, “Report Concerning Jeffrey E. Epstein’s Connections to Harvard University,” Harvard University Office of the General Counsel with Foley Hoag LLP, May 2020, pp.3, 5, 10. https://ogc.harvard.edu/files/ogc/files/report_concerning_jeffrey_e._epsteins_connections_to_harvard_university.pdf (archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20200507154151/https://ogc.harvard.edu/files/ogc/files/report_concerning_jeffrey_e._epsteins_connections_to_harvard_university.pdf) ↩ ↩2

  3. IPI staff member to Jeffrey Epstein, “Mongolian Presidential Advisory Board,” January 23, 2014, transmitting a draft message for Summers and the other board members; read from the page image. The sender’s address is redacted and is not reproduced. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00651278 p.1. ↩ ↩2

  4. The same presentation, Exhibit P, Summers row, read from the page image. Account numbers on the exhibit are redacted and are not reproduced. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01681865 p.38. ↩ ↩2

  5. Associated Press, “Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers steps down from public commitments after Epstein emails,” November 18, 2025. https://apnews.com/article/f6692249871db293adbbb1ebddb78037 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. American Economic Association, “Statement from the American Economic Association,” December 2, 2025. https://www.aeaweb.org/news/aea-statement-dec-2-2025 ↩ ↩2

  7. Collin Binkley, Associated Press, “Larry Summers will resign from teaching at Harvard during review of Epstein ties, university says,” February 25, 2026. https://apnews.com/article/e4075897230bb917f1c2f3286682e9b8 ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  8. Stephen M. Marks and Lauren A. E. Schuker, “Magnate Donates $30M to Sciences,” The Harvard Crimson, February 7, 2003. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2003/2/7/magnate-donates-30m-to-sciences-an/ ↩

  9. Jeffrey Epstein to Lawrence H. Summers and Terje Rød-Larsen, January 9, 2014; Summers and Epstein, January 21, 2014; and Lesley Groff’s Epstein-office schedule for January 24, 2014, all read from the page images. Email addresses and schedule particulars unrelated to the meeting are not reproduced. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01940278 p.1; https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01940879 p.1; https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01940955 p.1. ↩

  10. Email thread between International Peace Institute accountant Susan Waugh and the Epstein office, “Larry Summers’s W9,” May 6, 2014, read from the page image. The correspondence says IPI wired the payment on February 28, 2014; redacted contact fields are not reproduced. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA02106305 p.1. ↩

  11. Email thread, “travel invoices/credit- Lawrence summers,” March 20–28, 2014, read from the page images. The thread includes redacted names and contact fields, and text requesting identity particulars for airline processing; none is reproduced here. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00987011 pp.1–2. ↩

  12. “Deutsche Bank Presentation to the Office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York,” September 12, 2019, contents page, read from the page image. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01681865 p.1. ↩

  13. The same presentation, opening page of Exhibit P, read from the page image. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA01681865 p.37. ↩

  14. Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management, “Authorization for Asset Movement for Non-Retirement Accounts,” Southern Trust Company Inc. account, naming L H Summers Economic Consulting LLC as beneficiary and “Travel Expenses” as the additional instruction, signed by Darren Indyke, November 6, 2014, read from the page image. The account number on this instruction is not reproduced here. https://epstein-data.com/EFTA00297967 p.1. ↩

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