A group of wealthy business owners and investors pressed New York City Mayor Eric Adams to disperse anti-Israel protesters at Columbia University in the city, according to a report by the Washington Post. Business leaders urged Adams to use his influence with Columbia's president and board of trustees to get permission to send police to the campus and disperse the protesters.
The chat group, which reportedly has about 100 members and was started by an aide to billionaire real estate investor Barry Sternlicht, includes more than a dozen members of the Forbes annual list of billionaires, according to the Post. The outlet reported that it obtained communications from people with direct access to the chat's logs that were shared on the condition of anonymity. It also said that members of the group verified the chat's existence and their comments within it.
Several executives held a Zoom call with Adams on April 26, about a week after he first sent the NYPD to Columbia's campus, per the report. The call included Daniel Lubetzky, founder of snack food company Kind, as well as hedge fund manager Daniel Loeb, billionaire Len Blavatnik and investor Joseph Sitt.
However, it noted the city said it has not and is not using private investigators and rejected the notion that the NYPD's efforts to break up protests at Columbia were due to donors' requests, saying it was in response to a request from campus administrators. The group also discussed efforts to raise awareness of Hamas' atrocities on Oct.