In his Aug. 15 statement, Ito said he had met Epstein in 2013 at a conference, “through a trusted business friend.” He said in his fundraising efforts, he invited Epstein to the lab and also visited several of the financier’s residences. Ito said throughout all his interactions, he was “never involved in, never heard him talk about, and never saw any evidence of the horrific acts that he was accused of.”
“Regrettably, over the years, the Lab has received money through some of the foundations that he [Epstein] controlled. I knew about these gifts and these funds were received with my permission,” Ito wrote. “I also allowed him to invest in several of my funds which invest in tech startup companies outside of MIT.”
Zuckerman wrote in his statement: “For me, the deep involvement of Epstein in the life of the Media Lab is something that makes my work impossible to carry forward there.”
Matias wrote in his statement: “As part of our work, CivilServant does research on protecting women and other vulnerable people online from abuse and harassment.
“I cannot with integrity do that from a place with the kind of relationship that the Media Lab has had with Epstein. It’s that simple.”
Seth Lloyd, a professor of mechanical engineering and physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also wrote an apology statement over the fact that Epstein gave his foundation a grant to support his research. Lloyd didn’t say he was resigning.
MIT President Addresses Ties
In an Aug. 22 internal email addressed to members of the MIT community and obtained by The Epoch Times, university President L. Rafael Reif divulged how much money the university has received from Epstein over the years, and outlined steps it would take to address the situation.“Over the course of 20 years, MIT received approximately $800,000 via foundations controlled by Jeffrey Epstein. All of those gifts went either to the MIT Media Lab or to professor Seth Lloyd,” Reif wrote.
He added that the university will commit an amount “equal to the funds” it received to an appropriate charity that benefits Epstein’s alleged victims and other victims of sexual abuse.
MIT graduate Manny Alicandro told The Epoch Times the school’s latest response was too slow, although it’s welcome.
“I’m happy that the school’s kind of taking the steps,” he said in an interview. “I’m just kind of concerned they were kind of late doing it. We have known about Epstein for many, many years.
“There’s a question about Epstein right now in terms of how he made his money: Was it from ill-gotten gains? We just don’t know. So the school was taking it at face value that it was legit money.”
The Rothko press release “was simply not correct, and was issued without our knowledge or agreement,” and the toddler press release was also “completely incorrect,” said MIT Media Lab spokeswoman Alexandra Kahn in an email at the time, according to Reuters.
Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to state charges of soliciting a child for prostitution under a non-prosecution agreement that required him to spend 13 months in jail and register as a sex offender. The agreement has been condemned for ending a broad federal child sex abuse probe involving at least 40 teenage girls, which could have landed Epstein in jail for life.
