(2019-09-09) Top Mit Officials Knew Of Epsteins Ties To Media Lab Emails Show

Top MIT officials knew of Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to Media Lab, e-mails show. According to e-mails that circulated in 2014 and 2015 among university officials, at least two top MIT fund-raisers, along with a finance department administrator, were aware of Epstein’s involvement in the Media Lab and knew that his donations were to be treated as anonymous in the university’s donor tracking system.

in July 2014, after Epstein made a $50,000 gift to MIT, Richard MacMillan, then a senior director for large individual domestic gifts for the university, alerted the Media Lab to the problems associated with the donation.

“Recall we are not taking gifts from him,” MacMillan wrote to Peter Cohen, who was then the Media Lab’s director of development and strategy.

Then, another person, who is not identified in the e-mails obtained by the Globe, explains to several people on the e-mail chain that the recording secretary "should be reminded of Epstein’s anonymous status. There must be some kind of note they can add to his record to assure that all these gifts continue to get recorded as such." MacMillan then responded: “No it’s all set. She is taking care of it.’’

Cohen, who works as a fund-raising director at Brown University, did not respond to calls for comment. Brown has placed Cohen on administrative leave pending a review of his involvement at MIT with Epstein, according to news reports.

MacMillan, who left MIT this spring, said in a statement Monday that “to my knowledge” no gifts were accepted from “this individual” and that the development program told the Media Lab to avoid soliciting or receiving any gifts from Epstein.

During a meeting last week with members of the MIT Media Lab, Joi Ito told faculty, students, and staff that he did not make a decision to accept Epstein’s funding on his own, according to Technology Review, an MIT-owned magazine, whose reporter attended the meeting.