James Fine, Karyna Shuliak, and Columbia Dental’s Epstein Problem (7/7/26)

Dr. James Fine, a longtime Columbia College of Dental Medicine administrator, is set to leave his post after newly scrutinized records showed he twice helped Karyna Shuliak, Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, gain entry into Columbia dental programs. The first instance involved her admission into the dental school after she had initially been rejected, during a period when Epstein was being courted as a potential major donor. The second involved Fine later recommending Shuliak for a postdoctoral program. The controversy grew because Columbia had already taken action against other dental school figures tied to Epstein-related admissions and fundraising questions, while Fine had remained in place despite documents showing his role in both episodes.

The deeper issue is not merely one administrator leaving a university job; it is the pattern of elite institutions bending, softening, or bypassing normal procedures when Jeffrey Epstein’s money, access, or influence entered the room. Columbia has said Shuliak herself has not been found responsible for wrongdoing, but the admissions trail raises serious questions about who inside the school helped Epstein, why normal standards appeared to shift, and why accountability arrived only after documents forced the issue into public view. Fine’s exit adds another name to the fallout, but it also reinforces the larger Epstein pattern: powerful institutions only seem to discover their ethical backbone after the emails, donations, and internal favors become impossible to ignore.


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College of Dental Medicine administrator who twice aided Epstein’s girlfriend’s admission to exit post