Bill Ackman Says He Has Funded Francesca Gino’s Legal Defense Since June 2024

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill A. Ackman ’88 said he has been funding the legal defense of Francesca Gino — a former Harvard Business School professor accused of research fraud — since June 2024, challenging his alma mater in yet another high-profile dispute.

In a 4,102-word post on X early Friday morning, Ackman wrote that he began covering Gino’s legal and expert costs after concluding that she was wrongfully accused of research fraud and denied due process by Harvard.

Gino, a behavioral economist whose research focused on honesty and ethical behavior, was accused of falsifying data in several academic papers. After a multi-year investigation, Harvard revoked her tenure and terminated her employment in May 2025.

Ackman said that Gino first contacted him in late 2023 but did not seek assistance at the time. In May 2024, after she had exhausted nearly all her resources, Ackman agreed to learn more about the case and participated in a Zoom meeting with Gino and Harvard Law School professor L. Lawrence Lessig.

Ackman wrote that Lessig, who has been advising Gino pro bono, made a “powerful case” for her innocence. After reviewing the evidence, Ackman wrote that he and his colleague David Klafter were convinced that Gino was “entirely innocent.”

In the post, Ackman accused Harvard of prioritizing reputational concerns over a fair and thorough investigation.

“Harvard feared the potential reputational damage of having a professor who studied ethics and integrity being found guilty of committing research fraud,” he wrote.

While he described those concerns as "reasonable," he argued that the resulting process effectively deprived Gino of due process.

A Harvard spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on Ackman’s decision to back Gino in the case.

Ackman argued that Gino faced procedural obstacles during the investigation, accusing Alain Bonacossa, the research integrity officer at HBS, of providing false testimony.

He wrote in the post that when Gino asked if she could retain her own forensic research firm, Bonacossa told her she could not because she had already selected her two permitted advisors.

According to Ackman, Bonacossa later denied making that statement “in trial and under oath.”

Bonacossa did not respond to a request for comment on Ackman’s allegation.

Ackman went on to advance many of the arguments that Gino and her lawyers have raised before, including claims that Harvard failed to preserve digital evidence when it seized her electronic devices and interviewed only a small number of research assistants who worked on the papers under scrutiny.

Harvard has defended its process — which culminated in a roughly 1,300-page report — as thorough, saying its investigation transcribed witness interviews, outside forensic analysis, and a review of Gino’s electronic files.

Lessig has also taken a public role in defending Gino. In a recent multi-episode podcast series, he has sharply criticized Harvard’s investigation and laid out Gino’s account of the tenure revocation process. Ackman linked to the podcast in his post.

Ackman said he is prepared to continue funding Gino’s defense through trial, which is scheduled for December. He framed his involvement as personal, citing his own past experience being investigated by powerful institutions that he said “often assume that the little guy will eventually give up and/or run out of resources to keep fighting.”

The post adds to a growing list of confrontations between Ackman and Harvard. A major donor and HBS alumnus, Ackman has in recent years become one of Harvard’s critics, previously calling for the resignation of former Harvard President Claudine Gay over plagiarism findings and her handling of campus antisemitism.

Ackman wrote that he would welcome a resolution outside of court in the Gino case, but said he was doubtful Harvard would pursue one.

“We will provide whatever resources she needs to clear her name,” he wrote.