Director Of MIT’s Media Lab Steps Down Over Epstein Ties

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Director Of MIT’s Media Lab Steps Down Over Epstein Ties
September 7, 2019 at 6:47 pm
WBZ, Boston

CAMBRIDGE (AP) — The director of a prestigious research lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology resigned Saturday, and the school’s president ordered an independent investigation amid an uproar over the lab’s ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Joi Ito, director of MIT’s Media Lab, resigned from both the lab and from his position as a professor at the Cambridge school, university President L. Rafael Reif said. ...

Ito’s resignation comes after The New Yorker reported late Friday that Media Lab had a more extensive fundraising relationship with Epstein than it previously acknowledged and tried to conceal the extent of the relationship.  ...

Although MIT listed Epstein as “disqualified’ in its donor database, the Media Lab did not stop taking gifts from him and labeled his donations as anonymous, The New Yorker reported, citing emails and other documents it obtained.  ...  Full story

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NY Post reports:

...   The school sent out a letter to “the MIT community” announcing the move — which comes just one day after The New Yorker outlined the Epstein connection in an article written by Ronan Farrow.

“Last night, The New Yorker published an article that contains deeply disturbing allegations about the engagement between individuals at the Media Lab and Jeffrey Epstein,” said MIT President Rafael Reif. “Because the accusations in the story are extremely serious, they demand an immediate, thorough and independent investigation. This morning, I asked MIT’s General Counsel to engage a prominent law firm to design and conduct this process. I expect the firm to conduct this review as swiftly as possible, and to report back to me and to the Executive Committee of the MIT Corporation, MIT’s governing board.”  ...

More at NY Post

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Disgraced MIT-er Joichi Ito out at NYT
By Tamar Lapin
September 8, 2019

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab director who resigned over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein has also stepped down from The New York Times Company’s board of directors.  ...

On Saturday, Ito resigned as director of the Media Lab — then from his position on the Times board, which he had held since 2012.

Ito had previously claimed the lab only reaped $525,000 in donations from Epstein, along with a separate $1.2 million to Ito’s own personal investment funds.

But Epstein reportedly secured at least $7.5 million in donations for MIT, including $2 million from Microsoft founder Bill Gates and $5.5 million from investor Leon Black.

https://nypost.com/2019/09/08/disgraced-mit-er-joichi-ito-out-at-nyt/

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MIT whistleblower Signe Swenson says staffers referred to Epstein as ‘Voldemort’
By Lia Eustachewich
September 12, 2019 | 8:26am

 The whistleblower behind Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Jeffrey Epstein donation scandal said her “job was to protect secrets”– and recalled how female staffers mocked him as “Voldemort.”

Signe Swenson blew the lid on her ex-boss, Joichi Ito, the ousted director of MIT’s prestigious Media Lab, providing emails to the New Yorker that showed Ito’s relationship with Epstein was far cozier than he let on.  ...

Ito traveled to the financier’s homes in New York, US Virgin Islands and Mexico, and even once turned up at the lab with him and two eastern European “assistants,” she said.

“I don’t want to think about the worst,” Swenson said. “Joi spent time in Epstein’s homes and regularly socialized with him. It felt like bringing these two women everywhere, especially to scientific meetings, was a distraction. And the idea that they thought nothing was underfoot is impossible to believe.”  ...  Rest of story at NY Post