A Florida woman who was paid $750,000 by a fund for people sexually abused by Jeffrey Epstein has pleaded guilty to falsifying records she used in her application for the money.

Jennifer Percival, a scholar who has written books on autism, entered the plea in federal court in New York on Monday, the same day that she was charged in the case. A transcript of the proceeding was entered in the court record Wednesday.

During her brief court appearance, Percival didn’t speak about Epstein and prosecutors didn’t say whether they had reached a conclusion about whether she was, or wasn’t, one of his victims.

Percival, 46, said she applied in late 2020 to a fund set up by Epstein’s estate to compensate his victims after he killed himself while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. That fund, however, decided she was ineligible for a payment. Court records didn’t say why she was turned down.

Then, in 2024, she applied for a share of a new fund created by JPMorgan Chase, which had agreed to pay $290 million to Epstein victims to settle legal claims that the bank should have cut him off as a customer after he was publicly accused of being a serial sexual abuser of underage girls.

In support of that application, she falsely claimed the Epstein estate fund had found her eligible for compensation and paid her $500,000. She provided a copy of her rejection letter, but altered it to make it look like she had been approved.

“The purpose of these actions was to obtain money, which gave me a sense of validation,” she told a magistrate judge, according to the transcript of Monday’s court hearing.