A victim of Jeffrey Epstein who had previous interactions with Leon Botstein said she believed the Bard College president, whose relationship with the late sex offender is currently under review, was part of a group of influential and accomplished men whose proximity to Epstein helped to rehabilitate his reputation.
Svetlana Pozhidaeva, a former Russian model who worked as a “staffer” for Epstein, told the Guardian in an interview that she saw Botstein with Epstein together “quite frequently” – including having flown with him on a trip to Epstein’s island in December 2012 – and that she believed his reputation as a “sophisticated intellectual” helped “legitimize” Epstein.
Pozhidaeva first disclosed some details about her abuse anonymously in a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) article published in 2023, in which she alleged Epstein controlled her immigration, finances and housing, and – as is common in trafficking cases – pressured her to introduce him to other models. Over the course of a decade, she was one of several women Epstein sexually exploited under the guise of the “assistant” role, the WSJ noted.
“When you meet people like this, you think, who am I to question JE and his behavior when people at that level shake his hand?” Pozhidaeva said, referring to Epstein by his initials.
Pozhidaeva said she was treated with respect by Botstein, who is a musician as well as the college president. “They seemed to get along pretty well. Jeffrey Epstein looked at Leon as someone who was very knowledgeable, and had a lot of respect for him. He would know some of the most bizarre random historical facts and made the impression of a sophisticated intellectual,” she recalled. Being around people who were “high level professionals” – people like Botstein and even more so, a person with the status of Bill Gates – made Epstein “look not as bad”, she said.
Botstein’s interactions and relationship with Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while facing charges of sex trafficking, are now the subject of an “independent” review by WilmerHale, the white-shoe law firm. In an announcement in February, Bard’s board of trustees said it had appointed the law firm to review the full scope of Botstein’s communications with Epstein, financial contributions connected to Epstein, and “any related matters relevant to understanding these issues fully”.
The current controversy has set off a broader evaluation of Botstein’s more than 50-year tenure as president of Bard, including previous comments about sexual politics in education, his views about girls and women, including the role menstruation plays in their development, and the college’s handling of sexual assault and harassment allegations.
The Guardian sent a list of questions to Botstein’s Bard email address.
Jennifer Strodl, Bard’s director of communications, said in a statement in response to the questions that Botstein “fully supports the Board’s decision to pursue an independent review of this matter and will refrain from commenting further while this process is underway”. She added: “As the President has said previously, it is heartbreaking to think that his fundraising interactions unwittingly brought him into contact with any victims. He never witnessed anything inappropriate nor did he have any visibility into Epstein’s monstrous crimes.”
The review of Botstein’s relationship with Epstein is likely to include an examination of the president’s 2012 trip to Epstein’s island, Little St James.
In a press statement in February, a Bard spokesperson said Botstein had traveled with billionaire financier Leon Black and his family for a brief fundraising development trip, and that the Blacks had hosted Botstein and guests including Epstein for a dinner on the Black family boat.
Correspondence between Epstein and Botstein’s assistants, which were included in the release of Epstein files in February, detail logistical planning ahead of the trip, including whether Botstein would be traveling alone to “Jeffrey’s island”. In one email, Botstein’s assistant is told by Epstein’s assistant he would not only be joined by Black and his family, but “another friend of Jeffrey’s”. It is a reference to Pozhidaeva, who was on that flight, she confirmed to the Guardian, though her name is redacted.
In another email, Botstein’s assistant asked how “Leon” would get to Epstein’s house from Black’s boat, anchored nearby, to which Epstein’s assistant replies “via boat”.
When previously asked about the trip, a Botstein spokesperson told a reporter at WAMC, the radio outlet: “President Botstein came down with a severe flu on the trip, kept to himself after dinner, and isolated himself in a resort-style bungalow overnight.”
The trip, Botstein’s spokesperson noted, had resulted in a one-time contribution from the Black family to Bard. Botstein’s spokesman, David Wade, told the New York Times Botstein had stayed in a bungalow that night, but could not remember if it was on Epstein’s island.
In her interview with the Guardian, Pozhidaeva said she had no memory of Botstein being ill or isolating himself. If he had been ill, Pozhidaeva said she would have been told to isolate too since she had traveled with Botstein, because Epstein was “paranoid” about illness. She had no recollection of being told to do so.
Other emails raise questions about Botstein’s claim of having been isolated that night. Before his departure, a person whose name is redacted – Pozhidaeva said it was not her – sent Epstein an email, with an apparent question about the logistics involving Botstein’s travel home.
“Brice mentioned Leon should be at the dock by 12:45 to be taken to the airport…Unless you would prefer he takes the helicopter … He is so nice! Such a great person. (We watched Casablanca!) I hope you’re having nice dreams,” the person wrote.
Then, in an email sent the day after the visit, Botstein thanked Epstein, without any reference to his having been ill. He wrote: “I had a great time. The place is great.”
Botstein did not respond to the Guardian’s questions about the “Casablanca” email.
Emails show Epstein reached out to Botstein in May 2014 to ask about sending Pozhidaeva on a tour of Smolny, a Russian college with a dual credit program with Bard. Botstein responded by sharing the names of four faculty members, who Botstein later said he would contact to share Pozhidaeva’s name. He later warned Epstein that any funding of Smolny should be routed through Bard “for reasons of safety and protection against corruption”.
In a later email, in which her name was redacted, Pozhidaeva seemed confused about her task: she asked Epstein how she should go about deciding whether the place is worth funding, and what to fund if it is. In a reference to Botstein’s email – which had been forwarded to her – she asked Epstein whether she should say she worked for a “private investor”. “Yes”, Epstein replied. It is unclear whether Epstein ended up funding Smolny, how it may have been orchestrated, or what the funding may have been for. The Russian government declared Bard “undesirable” in 2021, effectively ending the college’s dual credit Russian program.
In her recent interview with the Guardian, Pozhidaeva said she did not know the purpose of her meetings at Smolny. But Epstein did not act on things without having an ulterior motive, she said, and that usually involved ensnaring other victims. Most of the women who served as his staff, and who he abused, were eastern European or Russian, she added.
Emails show, and Pozhidaeva confirmed, Botstein would later meet her parents and the parents of another person – a woman whose name was redacted – while on a trip to Russia in April 2015, following a concert in Moscow. The parents were invited after Epstein’s assistant passed on a request to Botstein’s assistant for tickets to be arranged. When he arrived back from Moscow, Botstein followed up on 11 April 2015, saying “Back from Russia. Met the parents. Are you around this week or next in NYC Leon.”
Pozhidaeva, whose father was in the Russian military, was asked by the Guardian to reflect on the significance of Botstein meeting her parents. “I am trying to be very objective about this. They met him at the concert and he made a really good impression. That created more trust [in Epstein],” she said. As far as her parents knew, she was Epstein’s assistant, and there was little media coverage of his previous conviction on sexual offense charges involving a minor.
Botstein did not answer the Guardian’s questions about his meeting with Pozhidaeva’s parents.
The Guardian interviewed Pozhidaeva – who has now changed her name – in early March. After being inundated by more media requests last week, she now says she no longer wants to be contacted by the media. Her identity was originally revealed following redaction errors by the justice department when it first released the files – a mistake that affected multiple victims.
The former model told the WSJ more recently that she had for many years felt embarrassed that she was in her early 20s, not underage, when she met Epstein, and that she had long believed she was at fault for getting herself in a bad situation.
She described to the Guardian how she had once been fearless and outgoing, but was physically and emotionally undermined by Epstein. “At one point I was under 120lb and I’m 5’11. I have photos where I look scary. He would weigh me, ask me how much I weighed, when I was not a model anymore. I was supposed to be an assistant,” she said.
“And I thought ‘nothing is wrong here, he’s doing what is right, like everything is normal’. Who am I to question him … when high-level people are meeting him and shaking hands with him and accepting dinner at his house,” she said. If Epstein told her to do something – including shifting money through a foundation she was associated with, Pozhidaeva said she had “no control whatsoever”. “Anything he said had to be a definite ‘yes,’” she said.
