BY LEV D. ZILBERMINTS
Reader Discretion in Advised
Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender, trafficker, pedophile and money maker made three payments to Seton Hall from 2017-2019, records from the Department of Justice (DOJ) show.
Local Talk made its usual diligent research to determine facts. Sources included the DOJ website; the Setonian, the student newspaper of Seton Hall University (SHU); and the British newspaper the Guardian; and the Jeffrey Epstein emails (Jmail) released by order of the U.S. Congress.
According to the Setonian article dated February 3, 2026, “On July 8, 2017, Epstein issued a $17,060 check from a Deutsche Bank account to SHU on behalf of an unnamed student for the fall 2017 and spring 2018 semesters. The tuition check shows a handwritten student’s name and ID number, both of which are redacted.
On July 13, 2018, Epstein issued an $11,749 check to SHU on behalf of another student, Brian Beller, for the same academic period. On Feb. 19, 2019, Epstein issued a second check for Beller, of $4,068 for the spring 2019 semester. Beller later graduated with an M.S. in accounting from SHU in December 2019.
Beller shares a last name with Harry Beller, Epstein’s financial advisor, who is referenced in the files in connection with the SHU checks. Under a column labeled “background,” the files list him as “Epstein employer Harry Beller.” There is no confirmation that the two are related.
The checks were signed by Darren Indyke, Epstein’s lawyer and co-executor of his estate.
Epstein has a documented history of funding the education of the children of his employees and associates.
Epstein paid tuition on behalf of the children of the then-U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. John de Jongh Jr. Emails between De Jongh’s wife, Cecile De Jongh, who worked as Epstein’s office manager for his companies in the U.S. territory, show her forwarding her children’s tuition bills to Epstein.
According to a JPMorgan Chase court filing, Cecile de Jongh also attempted to secure student visas and work licenses for young women connected to Epstein.
The filings further state that Epstein offered to fund former-Gov. De Jongh’s legal defense in a criminal case stemming from 2015 charges alleging misuse of public funds to make security improvements at his private residence.
Epstein also had a history of utilizing university connections to lure young women into his sex trafficking operation.
2016 The Guardian article confirms Epstein’s criminal purposes
According to a January 18, 2016 online article in the British newspaper “The Guardian” sex offender and pedophile Jeffrey Epstein used the lure of a university education to ensnare women into his sex abuse network.
Rina Oh told the Guardian that Epstein told her that she needed a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree to make it in the art world and was offering her a scholarship to New York’s School of Visual Arts “with no strings attached.” Per the Guardian, Oh said: “He attached a lot of strings to that scholarship. When I wouldn’t do all that he wanted he took it away.”
Oh, who spent roughly two years in Epstein’s network, is one of a number of survivors coming forward to detail how Epstein used offers to help enroll and sometimes pay for tuition at prestigious universities to maintain his sway over them.
Other similar stories aired last week via victim interviews with Democrats on the House judiciary committee. It also comes as a new, perhaps voluminous tranche of Epstein – related documents is expected to be released by the justice department in the coming days.
“Mr. Epstein repeatedly lured young women into his network by promising to help them gain admission into colleges and universities,” said the Maryland Democrat Congressman Jamie Raskin in letters sent to Columbia University and New York University asking for more information on this aspect of the scandal.
Epstein, Raskin added, “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.”
For Oh it sounds like her experience. “He was very much obsessed with infiltrating the minds of young people,” Oh says. “He didn’t just want to infiltrate for physical abuse, he wanted to infiltrate their brains because he was a cerebral beast.”
In her case, Oh says, the promise of a scholarship was replaced by a few lessons at the school and a painting commission. “It was an awful painting. He was obsessed with female body parts. He didn’t want a whole person. He didn’t want an abstract.” Epstein wanted a crotch. “He just said keep it real.”
Phillips, who, like Oh, was in her 20s when she met Epstein, told the Wall Street Journal this week that Epstein dangled an education at New York University, arranged for her to visit the campus and she eventually took classes. Phillips and Oh say another woman who was also being sexually exploited by Epstein was also studying at NYU.
Another woman told the Journal that Epstein sexually exploited her and that he had made her feel indebted to him by implying she had got in via his connections at the university. “He framed it to me as if he is the one who got me in, and he told the other girls that he got me in,” she said.
According to the committee, Epstein paid for a survivor, whom he abused from 2002 to 2005, to attend NYU between 2000 and 2002 and arranged a scholarship for her. Another survivor, then in high school, was repeatedly promised by Epstein he would get her admitted and pay for her to go to NYU. A third said he helped pay for her to attend Columbia between 2004 and 2007. A fourth said she was promised a visa and admission to NYU by an associate of Epstein but did not accept the offer.”
Analyses of the Jmail records by Local Talk confirmed that between at least 2014 – 2019 Deutsche Bank did financial business with Jeffrey Epstein and his associates. It was not until July 11, 2019 that Deutsche Bank severed its relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Why is this bad for Seton Hall University?
Even if Epstein was paying tuition for children of his associates as a reward for their parents’ service, it still looks bad. As the abovementioned articles and court data show, Epstein wanted to use university education as a hook to reel in young women into his sexual abuse network. Coupled with Seton Hall University’s scandals, this was the last thing SHU needed. But in 2019 Seton Hall University’s breadth of clergy abuse scandal was still unrealized.
With Seton Hall University connected to Jeffrey Epstein, it means things will go downhill for the school. There are already court orders for SHU to provide 20,000 pages of documents. Being connected to Jeffrey Epstein is the last thing Seton Hall University needs.
