(CNBC) The Massachusetts Institute of Technology said Friday that it had placed one of its tenured professors on paid administrative leave after finding that he “purposefully failed to inform MIT” that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was the source of two donations in 2012 to support the professor’s research, and that the professor got a $60,000 personal gift from Epstein.
A scathing report released by MIT also found that the decision by three administrators to accept donations from Epstein, who pleaded guilty to sex crimes in Florida in 2008 — one of which involved a minor girl — “was the result of collective and serious errors in judgment that resulted in serious damage to the MIT community.”
The report noted that even as its findings have been made public, “MIT is still without a clear and comprehensive gift policy or a process to properly vet donors.” However, the university has begun to develop such a process.
Epstein, a former friend of Presidents Donald Trump and Bill Clinton, donated $850,000 to MIT from 2002 through 2017 in 10 separate gifts, the report said.
That was $50,000 more than the amount MIT has previously reported to have received from Epstein.
The report also found that, “Unbeknownst to any members of MIT’s senior leadership … Epstein visited MIT nine times between 2013 and 2017.”
“The fact-finding reveals that these visits and all post-conviction gifts from Epstein were driven by either former Media Lab director Joi Ito or professor of mechanical engineering Seth Lloyd, and not by the MIT administration or the Office of Resource Development.”
