Columbia University’s dental school originally turned down a young woman associated with Jeffrey Epstein but later reversed its decision after the notorious financier made a $100,000 contribution to the dean and hinted at a larger, multi-million dollar donation, according to findings from the Daily Mail.

The Justice Department’s recent release of the Epstein Files sheds light on emails involving Ira Lamster, who was the dean of Columbia’s College of Dental Medicine at the time. These communications reveal that Lamster and other officials extended certain advantages to Karyna Shuliak during her 2011 and 2012 application process. Although Lamster admits to offering preferential treatment, he denies any explicit exchange of favors.

Shuliak, who is now 36, was Epstein’s partner for nine years. Before his death in 2019, Epstein attempted to leave her the bulk of his assets, including a 33-carat diamond ring.

The emails exchanged between Epstein, his team, and Columbia’s administrators illustrate how wealth and influence can be wielded to gain access to prestigious educational institutions, often sidelining merit.

Despite lacking a bachelor’s degree and possessing weak written English skills, Shuliak was admitted to the dental program. Furthermore, the school expedited her education, allowing her to graduate a year earlier than the cohort from which she was initially denied entry.

They also show the school fast-tracked her, allowing her to graduate a year before students in the class from which she was originally rejected.

‘Tell her not to be concerned as all is fine…We are good here,’ Lamster assured Epstein. At the time, Epstein and the university were in talks about what Lamster told the Daily Mail would have been a $5 million to $6 million donation.

Speaking with the Daily Mail, Lamster acknowledged that ‘of course the optics are bad,’ but insisted ‘there was no quid pro quo’ linking Shuliak’s acceptance in his program to Epstein’s contributions.

‘Maybe I was naive,’ he said. ‘One of the things that is more important to me than anything else is my good name and that I’m an ethical and moral person.’

Lamster was listed as a dean emeritus on Columbia’s website until February 6, when that page disappeared from public view.

The university declined to comment, but did note that Lamster is no longer working at the dental school and that its current dean took no part in arranging Shuliak’s admission.

Through her lawyer, Shuliak declined to comment.

A string of flirty emails, starting when she was 20 and living in Minsk, the capital of her home country, Belarus, and Epstein using the alias ‘Vassily’ and her ‘Captain,’ shows him coaching her on how to secure permission to enter the US as a ‘cleaning lady.’

‘But you are too beautiful and elegant for that,’ he wrote.

‘Someday you will go to Dental School here, I hope. to pass the exams and to have a successful practice the command of English is imperative,’ he continued in an email .

Shuliak had attended four years of a dental program at Belarusian State Medical University, but hadn’t completed her studies by the time she moved to New York City later in 2010. 

At Epstein’s urging, she set her sights on dental school at Columbia in Manhattan, despite having no undergraduate degree. 

He dissuaded her from applying to other schools on her list, writing, ‘only temple [University]. the others are mainly black studetns [sic] or not good places.’

‘Don’t worry about the money’ you are very important to me,’ he wrote.

In March 2011, Epstein started donating to Columbia’s dental college via his dentist, Thomas Magnani, an alumnus of the school whose office’s ‘about us’ page claims he teaches there and sits on its admissions committee.

Columbia told the Daily Mail that Magnani in fact no longer serves in either role.

A month later, Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff reached out to Martin Davis, a senior associate dean at the dental college, pushing for Shuliak to tour it the next day. 

Davis responded that they don’t normally arrange special one-on-one tours, but noted, ‘Tom asked if we might do a favor here, and he works very hard for us at Columbia… good fellow! How would ten a.m. work?’

After the tour, Davis wrote to Groff that, although ‘most dental colleges will view her years in Belarus as good preparation,’ ‘we rarely consider a candidate without a bachelors degree.’

In that same string of emails, he added that a member of the college’s fundraising office ‘informed me that Mr. Epstein was a significant supporter of CDM!!! All the better… please thank him for doing so… Maybe I should have created an all day tour!’

Groff wrote back, saying, ‘Jeffrey is asking if you would you be so kind as to email me the next steps Korina should take that would benefit her.’

‘Best done by phone,’ Davis responded.

Davis hadn’t heard back from Epstein’s office nor Shuliak herself six months later when he wrote Groff to say the college had ‘1700 applicants already and are in our 3rd week of interviewing,’ and check on whether Shuliak would be applying.

Davis is no longer with the dental school, Columbia has told us. And Lamster, when asked about Davis’s letter seeking Shuliak’s late application, told the Daily Mail it was ‘unusual,’ but ‘sometimes the kind of courtesy done for VIPs.’

Epstein emailed Shuliak chastising her for not being diligent enough. His messages show how hard he pushed her, and how personally involved he was in her plans.

Another email shows him helping her fill out her application.

In February 2012, Columbia denied Shuliak admission to its dental class of 2016.

Epstein jumped into action on behalf of the young woman he called his ‘girlfriend,’ scheduling drinks at his home with Magnani and Lamster.

Soon after that get-together, Lamster shot off a letter to Belarus, asking ‘Can Karyna take courses at Columbia to complete her 5th year, that would allow her to receive her dental degree from the Belarusian State Medical University?’

Lamster told the Daily Mail: ‘I don’t remember writing that, but maybe I did.’ Later in the same interview, he acknowledged that it was not typical for him to personally pen such letters on behalf of prospective students, and that he did so ‘as a favor to Epstein as a potential donor.’

At that time, he told us, he was in conversations with Epstein about a $5 million to $6 million contribution for a new building for the dental school.

‘There’s a reality here when you’re discussing with someone a large gift, you’ll do favors for something that you won’t give to someone else. That’s how the world works,’ Lamster said.

Within two and a half months of being rejected by Columbia, Shuliak had moved from her Brooklyn apartment into an Epstein-owned flat nine blocks from his Manhattan mansion and was accepted as a transfer student at the dental college.

Lamster and his staff arranged to fast-track her schooling by offering her a spot in the class of 2015 rather than the class of 2016, for which she originally applied. This, despite him having asked her school in Belarus if she could take courses at Columbia to complete her undergraduate degree.

Lamster also overlooked Shuliak’s questionable immigration situation at the time, writing Epstein: ‘Visa is not an issue due to her special status.’

Five days after Shuliak’s acceptance, emails show that Epstein hosted a dinner for Lamster, Magnani and Sara Patterson, then the dental school’s senior associate dean for finance.

Lamster later thanked Epstein, writing, ‘We appreciate your interest in CDM, and with your help we can move forward in a way that will transform the College.’ 

Epstein responded, ‘Look forward to a new friendship.’

The day after the dinner, while the dental school was still ironing out details of Shuliak’s special enrollment, Epstein asked his staff to order a set of monogrammed shirts for Lamster, along with the same shirts for Larry Summers, a former Obama administration treasury secretary and Harvard University president, and Jes Staley, then a top executive at JPMorgan Chase. 

Three days after the dinner meeting, Lamster wrote to Epstein about a major gift to the university.

‘As our discussions reach a more advanced stage, it is important that I tell you about the dynamics at the Columbia University Medical Center. Frankly. I am concerned, and with good reason, about others having designs on your generosity. 

‘I know you will be in Paris for the next month. I will be lecturing in Venice over the Memorial Day weekend, and believe this is sufficiently important that I can make a stop on my way back the US to discuss this briefly with you. Let me know your thoughts. Ira.’

Lamster told us he doesn’t recall what specifically made such a trip necessary.

An email Magnani sent Epstein at the time clarifies Lamster’s apprehensions.

‘Dean Lamster is concerned where your donation will end up. The medical school is always trying to claim all donations. … The donation is for the dental school only.’

Epstein wrote back, ‘don’t worry.’

By August 2012, Shuliak was enrolled in the dental college, walking in its white coat ceremony along with members of its class of 2016, to which she had not been accepted. She emailed Epstein a photograph of herself during the event, with him responding, ‘And you will graduate a year before everybody else on that stage.’

She also emailed him a photograph of Lamster, the dean who had reversed her rejection from Columbia and arranged her unusual admission.

Three days later, Lamster emailed Epstein’s office about where to send a donation specifically for his work, which another email shows amounted to $100,000. An email shows Epstein had the check chauffeured to Lamster.

In early 2013, proud that Shuliak passed her dental board exams, Epstein wrote Lamster and Magnani: ‘Thank you thank you.‘ He wrote Lamster again a year later: ‘thought you should know that Karyna passed her part 2 boards . thanks again.’

Lamster wrote back, ‘Please give Karyna my congratulations. There was no question that she would succeed,’ even though he now tells the Daily Mail that he doesn’t remember if he ever met her.

In 2017, Lamster tried to have the unused part of Epstein’s $100,000 donation to Columbia forwarded to him after he took a job at the Stony Brook University School of Dental Medicine, but Columbia kept the money. So Epstein cut a new $25,000 check to the Long Island school, writing: ‘it was karynas idea.’

Meanwhile, emails show Magnani hitting up Epstein year after year for contributions to Columbia’s dental school. Epstein complied, giving at least one donation for $50,000 in Shuliak’s honor.

Magnani did not return our inquiries for comment. A staffer in his dental office told us: ‘He doesn’t want to talk about him’ – meaning Epstein.

Columbia University wrote to the Daily Mail that it is ‘aware of approximately $200,000 in giving from Epstein related entities.’

‘It appears that years ago Dr. Lamster initiated his own discussions with Epstein, not at the behest of the University, about a large gift, which University leadership, upon learning about those conversations, ended it immediately when they learned about the source of funds.’

‘They refused to pursue this because they were concerned it was inappropriate,’ Lamster told us about the university’s view of Epstein and his money. ‘I was annoyed by that.’

Lamster said he hadn’t thought about his dealings with Epstein ‘for years and years and years’ until the latest release of the Justice Department files earlier this month.

‘This has been, especially because the last couple of days, very awkward for me. There was never my intention of doing anything wrong.’

The relationship between Epstein and Shuliak remained close.

He stayed with her parents while visiting Minsk and listed her as his emergency contact on multiple medical forms. Both sent late-night emails that they loved each other during stints in separate cities.

Several documents in the Epstein Files indicate he often arranged for Shuliak to be chauffeured to and from dental school, and others show he outfitted at least two of his homes with dental chairs and equipment for her use.

Documents show Epstein paid for Shuliak’s tuition – approximately $70,000 a year – at Columbia while providing her with an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and covering other expenses, including more than $191,000 in credit card bills in 2014 and trips all over the globe. 

He also supported her parents in Belarus, paid for her mother’s breast cancer treatment, gave her mother a credit card and put Shuliak on salary starting in 2015, the year she graduated from Columbia with her doctorate in dental surgery.

He took a strikingly active role in other aspects of her life, including her immigration status and dental career.

He arranged for her legal representation around her visa applications, sending her exact language to submit on her paperwork. He also had his lawyers shepherd her through a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement case against her in 2014.

Documents show he reached out to Robin Solomon, a donor relations executive at New York’s Mount Sinai Health System, for help securing Shuliak a dental residency. 

They detail him pulling strings with Cecile de Jongh, then the first lady of the Virgin Islands – where he owned two islands – to help Shuliak get her dental license there. And emails reveal that he essentially tried to buy her a job in a dental office in St Thomas.

Shuliak’s resume at one point after 2018 showed her living in the Virgin Islands where she ultimately owned her own dental practice and claimed to work for two of Epstein’s companies. 

Still, she described her professional objectives as outside of dentistry – to ‘gain a deeper understanding of international etiquette and guest protocol, ability to hostess salons, expand the knowledge and skills of estate management and fine housekeeping.’

The pair stayed tight right to the end of Epstein’s life. He can be seen in one email reminding his staff to wish Shuliak a happy birthday three months before his death. 

And she was the last to speak with him by phone before his apparent suicide behind bars in 2019.

Shuliak has not spoken publicly about her relationship with Epstein nor what she knows about his activities.

She has not received the full fortune Epstein bequeathed her because much of his estate was liquidated to compensate victims for more than $120 million in legal claims. There reportedly remains an estimated $125 million left, but none of his beneficiaries will receive money until all compensation claims have been settled.

Shuliak – who public records show is currently licensed as a dentist in Florida, New Mexico and New York – returned to Columbia after Epstein’s death, earning a post-graduate degree in general dentistry. She can be seen in a video at her graduation ceremony last May hugging her professors and grinning.