The funding deals ramped up this week in Boston, and the drip, drip, drip of details about the MIT Media Lab and Jeffrey Epstein continued to form an unwelcome puddle for university administrators. Read on for all the details.
—Joi Ito, the director of MIT Media Lab embattled by his fundraising connections with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, resigned last weekend from his posts at the university. The move stemmed from reporting in The New Yorker that showed his extensive efforts to prevent people from knowing about Epstein’s donations to the lab.
On Thursday, MIT President L. Rafael Reif acknowledged that he had signed a 2012 acknowledgment for a gift Epstein made to support professor Seth Lloyd’s work. Reif also said members of his team had been aware of Epstein’s contributions to the Media Lab between 2013 and 2017 and had spoken with Ito about Epstein’s criminal history.
“They knew in general terms about Epstein’s history—that he had been convicted and had served a sentence and that Joi believed that he had stopped his criminal behavior. They accepted Joi’s assessment of the situation. Of course, they did not know what we all know about Epstein now,” Reif wrote in a letter published on MIT’s website. “Information shared with us last night also indicates that Epstein gifts were discussed at least one of MIT’s regular senior team meetings, and I was present.”
The law firm Goodwin Proctor is still investigating the facts surrounding MIT’s fundraising relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.
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