The director of MIT Media Lab has resigned after documents and emails showed that he attempted to hide close financial ties between his research center and Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender who died by suicide last month.
Joichi Ito resigned from his post at the prestigious educational center on Saturday after emails and documents obtained by the New Yorker detailed how faculty and staff at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology attempted to hide Epstein’s ties with the university’s research. Ito had previously acknowledged that the university had accepted over $500,000 from Epstein directly, but the uncovered communications revealed that Epstein raised millions more for the research center from philanthropist Bill Gates and the investor Leon Black, according to the New York Times.
“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 told MIT Provost Martin Schmidt in an email.
Epstein played a key role in soliciting $7.5 million from Gates and Black. MIT faculty directed staff to hide Epstein’s connection to the donations. In Ito’s office, Epstein was often referred to as Voldemort or “he who must not be named,” referencing the main villain of the popular Harry Potter book series.
On at least one occasion, Ito solicited money from Epstein despite the financier being “disqualified” from donating to the university research center. Ito asked Epstein to donate $100,000 to prop up a certain research project for one more year. Epstein approved the payment, and MIT staff recorded the donation as “anonymous” because of its source.
Epstein died by suicide last month in his jail cell in New York while awaiting trial for child sex trafficking charges.
