Civic organizations request Harvard, Princeton look into Romanian academics involved with Epstein
Eight civic organizations from Romania have launched a public initiative requesting Harvard University and Princeton University to carry out disciplinary investigations related to academics who appeared in the Epstein files.
The initiators present the initiative as part of a broader effort toward institutional accountability, emphasizing that their actions are based on “primary public sources” and that the goal is “transparency and institutional responsibility.”
Jeffrey Epstein was an American magnate convicted of sexual offenses, known for building an extensive network of contacts in political, academic, and business circles. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution and received a reduced sentence, which generated major controversy. Later, in 2019, he was arrested again for sex trafficking of minors, but died in custody the same year, in circumstances officially declared as suicide. Documents made public afterward, including by the US Department of Justice, revealed the extent of his connections and interactions with numerous influential individuals worldwide.
Romania was mentioned more than 800 times in excerpts from the private correspondence of billionaire Jeffrey Epstein and his collaborators. Notably, there is an exchange with a Romanian, Corina Tarniță, a university professor and mathematician who taught at Princeton University. In one email, she reportedly wrote to Epstein’s collaborators about a “girl from Romania, who will receive USD 10,000.”
In another email, Tarniță mentioned two girls who are both from Iași University. In this case, the organizations also requested information from Romanian state institutions, but the responses indicate that “they have not initiated or worked on cases related to this network.”
On May 4, 2026, the eight organizations sent a petition to Princeton University, requesting the “initiation of a public disciplinary investigation” and placing Tarniță, whose name appears 344 times in the Epstein files, on administrative leave for the duration of the inquiry. According to the documents, Tarniță’s relationship with Epstein took place over several years.
However, the authors of the petition explicitly stated that “the public files do not contain evidence that [Tarniță] was aware of or participated in criminal activities,” justifying the request through a “pattern of undisclosed behavior” and the lack of an institutional evaluation.
In parallel, a similar letter was addressed to Harvard University, where the organizations criticized previous evaluations and called for an independent investigation. They argued that the internal report from 2020 is “incomplete material” and that a new investigation must be carried out by “independent external advisors, with the conclusions made public.” The letter targets several professors and raises issues related to funding, research ethics, and institutional relationships with Epstein.
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