From our Late to the Party desk:
Several weeks ago the Weekly Standard ran an item (sub. req.) that began this way:
Edifice Complex
On April 20, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan returned to her old stomping grounds in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to rename a building at Harvard Law School after Finn Caspersen. A graduate of the class of ’66, Caspersen inherited a billion-dollar fortune and had been the school’s biggest donor during Kagan’s stint as dean of Harvard Law.
Caspersen – who committed suicide in 2009 – was also, according to the Weekly Standard, a tax dodger who “may have owed the IRS as much as $100 million, having squirreled away much of his fortune in offshore accounts—and this likely played a role in his decision to end his own life.”
But not his name, apparently.
Caspersen’s shady activities do not appear to have dampened Kagan’s enthusiasm for the man. The “Caspersen Student Center” was formerly named after Edward S. Harkness who, like Caspersen, was the inheritor of a considerable fortune. Beyond that similarity, Harkness was a more generous and modest philanthropist.
And a more worthy one in the opinion of a group calling themselves Harvard Unbound, which distributed a flyer that said in part:
On April 20 you’ll see Justice Kagan dedicate a monument to Finn Caspersen, a schmuck who cheated the IRS out of $100 million, gave $30 million of it to Harvard Law, then blew his brains out as IRS agents closed in.
The corrupt donor is in the ground.
The corrupt fundraiser is on the Supreme Court.
Money talks. Kagan walks.
All this got the hardworking staff to wondering whether we’d just missed this news in the local dailies. So we checked the Boston Globe (nope) and the Boston Herald (nope) and even checked the New York Times (nope).
Does this mean those news outlets covered up the story?
Nope.
Just means they should read the Weekly Standard.
Campaign Outsider 
Even though your link to the Weekly Standard didn’t turn up anything, this still seems like a story that should have been covered somewhere. I think any organization that names its buildings after suspected tax cheats should lose its own tax exemption and pay property taxes. At the very least, Harvard Law School should follow the example of Boston University, which refused (after some student protests) to name a building after Boston landlord Maurice Gordon.
Without the Weekly Standard article, I couldn’t tell exactly what Justice Kagan’s relationship was with Finn Caspersen, or why she is corrupt. I did find an obituary and a couple of HLS references to Caspersen, and Kagan’s name certainly does come up. But so do the following: Christine Todd Whitman, Thomas Kean, Larry Summers, Drew Faust, the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation, and the Princeton National Rowing Association.
That’s a lot of power and privilege to take on but I’m willing to do my part. When the Princeton scullers row by at next year’s regatta, I intend to turn my back to them in protest. Or else I won’t go to the regatta at all.
But maybe I’m being unfair. Is there anything in the Weekly Standard article which provides a way to measure the level of corruption in taking tainted money? Maybe a scale of one to ten, where “one” is an innocent horse on the U.S. Equestrian Team, and “ten” is a Weekly Standard editor, taking Rupert Murdoch’s phone hacking money.
In the interests of full disclosure, I lived in a Maurice Gordon building for a short time before his estate sold it. My next landlord was luckier–he has actually attached his name to an institute of investigative journalism. Look up the history of the Diego Beekman Apartments to find out how ironic that is.
Sorry, Bob – I should have noted sub. req. (I have now). Anyway, here’s the whole item:
Edifice Complex
On April 20, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan returned to her old stomping grounds in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to rename a building at Harvard Law School after Finn Caspersen. A graduate of the class of ’66, Caspersen inherited a billion-dollar fortune and had been the school’s biggest donor during Kagan’s stint as dean of Harvard Law.
We refer to Mr. Caspersen in the past tense because he committed suicide in 2009, a fact The Scrapbook was vaguely aware of thanks to one of Vanity Fair’s patented articles about the lurid secrets of the rich and famous, e.g., “Oddly, Caspersen had not the slightest interest in golf and never played. His passions ran instead to the more esoteric sports of Olympic-level horse jumping, four-in-hand horse-drawn-carriage driving, and competitive rowing.” Unfortunately, Caspersen’s other great hobby was tax evasion—he may have owed the IRS as much as $100 million, having squirreled away much of his fortune in offshore accounts—and this likely played a role in his decision to end his own life.
Anyway, Caspersen’s shady activities do not appear to have dampened Kagan’s enthusiasm for the man. The “Caspersen Student Center” was formerly named after Edward S. Harkness who, like Caspersen, was the inheritor of a considerable fortune. Beyond that similarity, Harkness was a more generous and modest philanthropist.
A Yale alumnus, Harkness helped fund much of the student housing system in New Haven and paid to establish the now-legendary Yale School of Drama. (Harkness is said to have been the inspiration for a minor character in Long Day’s Journey into Night.)
But in 1929 he also gave a $13 million donation to Harvard, or about $174 million in today’s dollars. Moreover, Harkness insisted that nothing at Harvard be named after him despite his massive gift. Only after his death in 1940 did Harvard administrators convince his widow to allow a building to be named after him as a show of gratitude.
So you can imagine not all Harvard students are thrilled about the decision to dishonor Harkness by renaming his building after a tax cheat who gave a comparatively modest gift. Last week, flyers started to go up on billboards around the law school from a group calling themselves Harvard Unbound. They read, in part:
On April 20 you’ll see Justice Kagan dedicate a monument to Finn Caspersen, a schmuck who cheated the IRS out of $100 million, gave $30 million of it to Harvard Law, then blew his brains out as IRS agents closed in.
The corrupt donor is in the ground.
The corrupt fundraiser is on the Supreme Court.
Money talks. Kagan walks.
While perhaps this message could have been expressed in a more tactful manner, we sympathize with Harvard Unbound’s indignation. But more than that, color us shocked that Kagan would honor a tax cheat, and thereby make such a mockery of the current campaign to ensure tax fairness for the 1 percent spearheaded by her former White House boss and fellow Harvard Law alumnus.
You would have to have KNOWN Finn to even begin to understand the man. Although he protected his family fortune, a good bit of it was given to those who needed it. When Finn saw something he could help, he set about doing it. I knew Finn,his mother Freda, and his personal secretary well, and there was never a hint of any improprieties. If he indeed squirreled away money illegally, he gave away vast more than he hid. I wonder if the IRS allegations were ever really proven? Our friends, Charley Knight and Dave Kerr, (involved in ventures with Finn….mainly the Harbour Island one in Tampa), would have hated all that was publicized. They died before that,..and for that, I am thankful. Finn was a man way ahead of his time. I am proud to have been his “hidden” representative on Harbour Island. A good many of the articles link his “tax evasion” as a direct cause of his death. They don’t even mention the cancer that was rapidly taking his life. Finn, the man, could have stood the scrutiny caused by possible tax evasion. He could NOT have lived to become a weak, bedridden, dying man. People turned to and depended on FINN….I don’t believe he would have allowed it to be any other way. It is my humble opinion, that his suicide, (IF THAT IS WHAT IT WAS), was caused by his horrible impending death,.
As I said, you would HAVE to have known him! KEITH PAYNE