The director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, Joi Ito, has reportedly resigned in the wake of continued scrutiny over the center’s financial relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The prestigious university center had admitted to accepting some financial donations from Epstein, despite the financier’s history of pleading guilty to soliciting prostitution from a child.
But new reports from the New Yorker and the New York Times said that internal emails indicated Media Lab officials had worked to conceal the full extent of Epstein’s donations to the Media Lab, and his other assistance to the center.
This included at least $7.5m in donations Epstein helped secure from two other prominent philanthropists, Bill Gates and the investor Leon Black, the New Yorker reported.
The New Yorker’s investigation quoted former center employees who spoke about their concerns about the lab’s relationship with Epstein, as well as internal emails from the center’s director, who wrote of one Epstein donation: “Make sure this gets accounted for as anonymous,” and another from the lab’s director of development, who wrote: “Jeffrey money, needs to be anonymous.”
Joi Ito, who lead the influential university research center for eight years, emailed his resignation to university officials on Saturday, the New York Times reported.
“After giving the matter a great deal of thought over the past several days and weeks, I think that it is best that I resign as director of the media lab and as a professor and employee of the Institute, effective immediately,” Ito wrote in an email shared with the New York Times.
Ito did not immediately respond to requests for comment. MIT’s press office did not immediately comment, either.
Epstein had worked for years to cultivate relationships with prominent scientists and academics, as well as with powerful political and financial figures.
MIT’s president said the university took about $800,000 from Epstein over 20 years. The New Yorker reports Epstein arranged $7.5m in donations.
Epstein killed himself in jail on 10 August while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
