When she reached out to Jeffrey Epstein in 2013, Ditè Anata knew the Manhattan wealth manager could easily help a Juilliard student cover her housing costs. Anata, an international model with a top agency, also apparently knew Epstein well enough to implore him to avoid any less-than-professional dealings.
More:Epstein pulled strings, paid tuition across world for kids of powerful
She told Epstein she'd mentioned to the student's "mum" how generous Epstein was with artists and how he played the piano.
"I skipped all my experiences that shocked me so please," she wrote on Aug. 20, 2013, "be nice and behave your best :) If you feel like you can't be official I would rather you not help her."
Anata did not know the student at the prestigious performing arts college in New York City, but she told USA TODAY she knew Epstein was a philanthropist who supported "talented individuals and artists."
She also knew Epstein had spent roughly two years in custody after pleading guilty to solicitation of prostitution and hiring minors to engage in prostitution. But Anata explained to USA TODAY that Epstein told her that those charges were "politically motivated and set up by his adversaries."
That same day, a person whose name is redacted wrote to Epstein that a family friend had come through with New York accommodations and she would not need to contact "Juilliard's Residence Hall." The email does not explicitly link the housing solution to the Juilliard student, but it references a conversation with someone named Ditè.
"It is wonderful to know, that there are still such kind and generous people in the world like you, who value and support Arts and Science" the Aug. 20, 2013, email read. "I was delighted to hear from Dite, that you yourself love playing the piano!"
More:Who is in the Epstein files? A look at the latest names
Epstein kept the correspondence going,inviting his correspondent to dinner with a famous movie director and a prominent composer. The email correspondent replied that it would be a "great honor for me to participate."
USA TODAY reached out to the former student discussed in Anata and Epstein's email exchange, whose name surfaced in the final batch of court documents released by the Justice Department last month.
The former student's attorney, Brittany Henderson, declined to answer questions about the housing situation, but said her client "endured substantial abuse at the hands of Epstein." Henderson requested anonymity for the former student, which USA TODAY granted, as it does not identify people who report sexual abuse.
More:Six years after Jeffrey Epstein's death, hundreds of women push for justice
Anata told USA TODAY she did not have any information about what transpired after she'd asked Epstein for help. Juilliard said it did not receive payment from Epstein, and the student never lived in campus housing.
Among themillions of pages from the Epstein files the DOJ released following a mandate from Congress, the email exchange between Anata, Epstein and the Juilliard student illustrates how the now-globally notorious sex offender served as an opportunity broker for powerful people. Emails show he arranged to help the relatives of celebrities like Woody Allen and his wife Soon-Yi Previn, or politicians like Peter Mandelson, the former British ambassador to the United States. They also came from lower-profile people hoping to change their circumstances.
In exchange, the people asking favors told Epstein they felt they owed him and promised to reward him in various ways for his largesse.In the messages reviewed by USA TODAY, none of the people who appear to be currying favor with Epstein are connected to allegations of Epstein's illegal acts, including sexual misconduct, and they have not been accused of any wrongdoing.
A USA TODAY review of hundreds of files shows Epstein or entities tied to him paid at least $840,000 to cover students' costs at 28 different schools.
Jamie Raskin, a constitutional law scholar and Democratic Maryland congressman, has been pushing the feds for more transparency about Epstein's ties to America's elite universities. In January, he requested documents be released showing how Epstein and potential co-conspirators arranged for women to attend Columbia and New York University and paid their tuition after they were accepted.
"By doing so, Mr. Epstein not only lured young women who he and his co-conspirators would come to sexually abuse and rape, he also ensured his victims were indebted to him and less likely to come forward to report crimes to law enforcement," Raskinwrote in a letterto NYU President Linda G. Mills.
The trove of documents released last month revealed Epstein's largesse extended beyond these New York colleges. A USA TODAY review of hundreds of files shows Epstein or entities tied to him paid at least $840,000 to cover students' costs at 28 different schools, according to a Deutsche Bank document in the Justice Department files. In addition,USA TODAY found Epstein arranged for tuition payments for dozens of people at other schools across the country, including large public universities, for-profit art colleges and elite private universities.
Marquee celebs, prominent academics sought with school costs
Sometimes Epstein covered school costs for his staffers or the children of his friends. In other cases, the Deutsche Bank report described the recipients as "Russian" or "Swedish" models. Their names were redacted. The newly released files also show that additional payments, beyond those shared by Deutsche Bank in September 2019, were made a few months after Epsteindied in federal custody.
Epstein, for example, arranged to pay 10,000 pounds for Reinaldo Avila da Silva, the husband of British politician Peter Mandelson, to attend an osteopathic program.
"It feels so right to be doing this," da Silva wrote Epstein after he'd begun his studies, in an email message on Sept. 28, 2009. "It has increased my understanding of the body in every aspect already."
The Health Sciences University, which houses the Uco School of Osteopathy, the former British School of Osteopathy, told USA TODAY that the institution did not receive money directly, "from Epstein, his businesses, or any of his known business associates."
The General Osteopathic Council, a regulatory body in Britain,issued a news release Feb. 2saying it was "aware of media reports that the husband of Peter Mandelson, Reinaldo Avila da Silva, was in receipt of funds from Jeffrey Epstein to fund an osteopathy course in the UK in 2009."
The organization went on to say that da Silva did not graduate and was ineligible to practice osteopathy in the UK. Mandelson was fired from his role as the British ambassador to the United States in 2025 after his ties to Epstein became apparent.
Mandelson's attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
Epstein made similar overtures to Hollywood titans.
In 2018, he wowed Caroline Lang, then a Warner Bros. executive based in France, when he appeared to promise he would cover tuition for a person with the same name as her daughter.
Epstein writes: "to confirm her tuition is my treat."
"Waouh!!! I am spoiled!!!!! Great!!!!" Lang wrote back.
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It's unclear based on the emails whether Epstein paid the tuition. USA TODAY attempted to contact Lang but did not receive a response.
Epstein wielded not only his checkbook in service of his charges, but also his Rolodex.
In 2016, Epstein personally appealed to the president of Bard College, Leon Botstein, to help secure admission for Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn's daughter.
David Wade, a spokesperson for Botstein, provided a statement, saying, "Jeffrey Epstein was a serial liar who apparently took credit for the sun rising each day."
The statement went on to say Allen and Previn's daughter was "accepted on the merits of her own qualifications for admission."
As for the university president's connection to Epstein, Wade said that Botstein "regrets enormously pursuing this fundraising connection," but "seeking more philanthropy was the only reason that their paths crossed."
Botsteinhas since faced calls to resign, according to Mid Hudson News.
Allen's manager did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.
Epstein was also known to broker openings for academics and their children. For example, Joscha Bach, a former MIT professor who now works as an AI researcher, asked Epstein repeatedly to fund his children's private education at schools including Alef-Bet Child Care Inc., a "play-based day care" in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the German International School Boston, "a bilingual independent school serving students from preschool – grade 12." The newly released emails show that Bach received at least $48,000 to cover education expenses.
Bach told USA TODAY scientists he knew had introduced him to Epstein. He said that he was aware of Epstein's past convictions, but fellow academics told him that the financier had changed.
When he accepted Epstein's help, Bach was studying artificial generative intelligence, a topic for which he told USA TODAY he struggled to find research funding. He was "confronted with the choice of accepting Epstein's offer to fund the stay of me and my family in the U.S., or to leave academic research behind."
"I decided to take his offer; I would not have been able to support the move, cost of living, day care or cost of the German school from my postdoctoral salary," Bach told USA TODAY.
He added that Epstein "never expected anything in return" other than access to the "minds of individuals he found interesting." He said he'd never observed Epstein commit illegal activity or sexual crimes. Bach said that Epstein's second arrest "came as a shock."
Had he been aware of that activity, Bach said, "I would have ceased all interactions."
Where else did Epstein cover tuition?
The Deutsche Bank document in the Epstein files provides a concise accounting of the range of schools at which Epstein covered tuition.
They include many payments for Epstein's staff members' relatives: roughly $19,900 for one employee's relative to attend Fairleigh Dickinson University, a private college in New Jersey; and $10,000 for another person's relative to attend Mississippi College, a private Christian institution in a suburb of Jackson.
Dina Schipper, a spokesperson for Fairleigh Dickinson, said the university was aware these expenses were reflected in the files and that it had records of three tuition payments from a Jeffrey Epstein account in 2015. She said the university had no records or knowledge of any connection to Epstein in any other capacity.
Beyond the Deutsche Bank report, USA TODAY's review uncovered documents showing Epstein paid tuition at primary schools, private universities, for-profit colleges and a coding boot camp.
A correspondent whose name was redacted by the DOJ sought help in covering the tuition for massage school. The student had nowhere else to turn, the message said.
"I am of course more than happy to do anything for you in return. miss you a lot. Xo," the aspiring student wrote in a 2009 message, written a year after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution and hiring a minor to engage in sex.
Another correspondent, whose name was also redacted by the feds, sought Epstein's help paying for an education at Sotheby's Institute of Art New York, a for-profit college, in 2019. In an email, Lesley Groff, identified as Epstein's assistant, communicated with Sotheby's about the student's tuition payment.
Amanda M.F. Bakale, general counsel of Edconic, said the company that runs the institute was not previously aware Epstein had sent the payment, but she subsequently confirmed its veracity.
"It is not uncommon for individuals other than the student to complete the payment form (employers, parents, etc.)," Bakale wrote.
The attorney said that the school hadn't received any inquiries from law enforcement tied to the payment.
Sometimes, Epstein's quid pro quo was explicit
In dozens of exchanges where power brokering like this played out, Epstein's motivations occasionally showed through. In some cases, he laid out explicit conditions for what he wanted in exchange for fronting tuition money. In April 2017, he wrote in an email to a person whose name was redacted that he would provide $30,000 for tuition, but it came with a caveat.
"You will need to provide three assistants. 10k per. If you don't you will have to repay," he wrote.
Even with this explicit condition, the person asking the favor seemed eager to push forward with the deal. The email correspondent said he or she was "crossing my fingers for" the student whose name was redacted. Separately, the correspondent noted that he or she was planning an ad campaign and would be hiring "females under 24 based in NY/Paris."
It's unclear if the campaign ever ran.
Chris Quintana is an investigative reporter at USA TODAY. He can be reached at cquintana@usatoday.com or via Signal at 202-308-9021. He is on X at @CQuintanaDC.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Epstein files reveal how he cultivated power figures to his benefit
