Federal Suit Targets Harvard, 4 Associates

The federal government sued Harvard University and four associates for $120 million, claiming that Harvard staffers benefited from a U.S.-backed program to help post-Cold War Russia make the transition to capitalism. Harvard economics professor Andrei Shleifer and former Harvard legal expert Jonathan Hay “abused their positions as high-level and trusted advisors to and on behalf of the United States in Russia,” according to the suit. The Justice Department said Hay and Shleifer, along with Shleifer’s wife and a woman now married to Hay, made investments and business deals in Russia that were in conflict with their duties in the Harvard Institute for International Development.