MIT Media Lab chief out after 'deeply disturbing' link to Jeffrey Epstein
The head of the the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's embattled Media Lab has resigned and the school has opened an investigation into "deeply disturbing" links between the lab and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, MIT's president has announced.
The fallout comes three weeks after another senior lab employee said he would resign in protest over revelations lab director Joi Ito took money from Epstein, who apparently committed suicide in jail last month.
Ito, who also taught at the prestigious school, resigned Saturday, hours after an article in The New Yorker detailed how the lab accepted gifts from Epstein despite being listed as “disqualified” in MIT’s official donor database. The article said the lab listed Epstein's contributions as anonymous and avoided disclosing to the school the full extent of his involvement.
MIT President L. Rafael Reif issued a statement calling the accusations "extremely serious" and said MIT’s general counsel was hiring a prominent law firm to conduct an investigation "as swiftly as possible."
Last week, Ito disclosed that he had received $1.2 million from Epstein for investment funds Ito controlled in addition to a $525,000 donation to the lab. The New Yorker said Epstein also secured at least $7.5 million in donations, including $2 million from Microsoft founder Bill Gates and $5.5 million from Leon Black, a wealthy equities manager and chairman of the Museum of Modern Art.
"The New Yorker published an article that contains deeply disturbing allegations about the engagement between individuals at the Media Lab and Jeffrey Epstein," Reif said. "The acceptance of the Epstein gifts involved a mistake of judgment."
Ethan Zuckerman, director of the lab's Center for Civic Media, last month announced that he would resign in protest of the lab's involvement with Epstein.
Epstein, 66, was found dead in his cell at the federal lockup in Manhattan of what an autopsy report classified as a suicide. An indictment unsealed in July accused him of sexually exploiting and abusing dozens of underage girls at his mansions in Manhattan; Palm Beach, Florida; and elsewhere from 2002 to 2005.
The charges included sex trafficking and conspiracy, allegations that could have landed Epstein in prison for decades. The indictment led several other women to come forward with claims of sexual abuse against him.
Ito is an activist, entrepreneur and researcher who earned a doctorate last year.
“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 internal email obtained by The New Yorker.
The Media Lab is a research an educational program with an annual budget of about $80 million, according to its website. The lab includes a graduate enrollment of almost 200 students, and more than 200 undergraduates and grad students from other department conduct research through the lab each year.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: MIT: Media Lab chief out after 'disturbing' link to Jeffrey Epstein
