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Harvard admits to receiving $9M from Jeffrey Epstein

thehill.com

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Re: Harvard admits to receiving $9M from Jeffrey Epstein

#21

Post by mistermann »

msghacq wrote: post #8
ZeroGravitas wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You seem up to date, has anyone figured out where Epstien got all the money from yet?

No, it's still a mystery. Right before he died, he moved it all into a trust and named Bill Gate's advisor as his executor: https://nypost.com/2019/08/20/ex-bill-gates-adviser-shocked-... Gates himself has a lot to answer for. The MIT emails show Epstein funneling $2M from Gates to Media Lab. He also flew on Epstein's jet to Florida and hasn't answered why.

With the amount of powerful people involved in this story, I don't think we're ever going to find out any details what really happened about the actual trafficking crimes themselves, at best we'll probably just be fed a healthy diet of salacious stories like this until some other event is big enough to distract everyone.

But I sense this whole thing is yielding fruit in other ways. Reddit threads on the front page (and allowed to stay on the front page; this thread on HN has now been flagged I see) in normal subreddits are absolutely full of overwhelming conspiratorial comments, the nature of which the hivemind would previously have downvoted into oblivion, because as we all know conspiracies like this are "always" crazy lies, due to the fact that is it "literally impossible" for that many people to keep their mouths shut.

Re: Harvard admits to receiving $9M from Jeffrey Epstein

#22

Post by msghacq »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #20

Whatever Epstein did, it's good that his money be put to good use like helping education and research rather than being burned because he touched it. Harvard has nothing to 'admit', they did nothing wrong, and there is no point in them getting rid of the money they have left.

Epstein cited his relationships with these schools (built through fundraising) repeatedly both to intimidate his victims into silence and convince authorities to let him go. This wasn't a case of him sending a check and walking away, he was extracting a lot of value for his predatory operation from these institutions. They should face the music for their role in what happened.

Re: Harvard admits to receiving $9M from Jeffrey Epstein

#23

Post by par »

foxhill wrote: post #17
echelon wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen posts claiming that he was an intelligence asset for either the CIA or Mossad. I didn't see any proof, so take it with a grain of salt.

if it can be asserted without evidence, it can be dismissed without discussion.

That's preposterous. A lot of times you need an assertion in order to gather evidence. To make an assertion and then immediately dismiss it because there is no evidence would be a criminals dream come true.

Re: Harvard admits to receiving $9M from Jeffrey Epstein

#24

Post by nullc »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #11

There is a huge difference with what Harvard did and what MIT's Media Lab did. According to the article, Harvard didn't take any money from Epstein after his conviction, while at the Media Lab they continued to take it even after MIT put Epstein on its donor blacklist , and tried to hide the source of the funds.

> Media Lab they continued to take it even after MIT put Epstein on its donor blacklist,

Turns out this was a misrepresentation:

* https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614299/mit-media-lab-jeff...

Apparently "disqualified" status was a flag in their CRM essentially just meant "don't bother trying to cold call this person", usually set after three failed attempts to fund-raise from them. It in no way signaled any kind of prohibition on fundraising, and only available to development staff in any case. The whole tangent was essentially spurious and signified nothing except that his donations weren't coming in through fundraising cold calls.

But the real shocker is:

* https://president.mit.edu/speeches-writing/preliminary-fact-...

Media Lab's acceptance of donations from Epstein was known and approved by senior staff in MIT administration, the president even sent a thank you letter. The Media Lab had been directed by the administration to keep Epstein's donation's anonymous to avoid him using MIT for publicity or to enhance his own reputation.

So this whole idea that Ito was demonstrating mens rea by concealing his actions from the administration appears to be completely false. I find it shocking that MIT took a week to clarify this point.

Kinda sad that HN has had three front page stories repeating this allegation that Ito hid the donations from MIT, but a submission of the link to MIT's statement that the administration knew and directed keeping them anonymous is totally buried. I could understand being burned out on the subject, but now we have this Harvard thing at the top...

Re: Harvard admits to receiving $9M from Jeffrey Epstein

#25

Post by _qswe »

parsimo2010 wrote: post #13

The Hill does a decent job of reporting this without sensationalizing it. Of note: They accepted money from him, but it was all prior to his 2008 conviction in Florida. I don't fault Harvard for this, and I think this is just one of those tangential stories that pop up whenever the media sensationalizes something. Also note that this is Harvard, which is separate from the MIT Medial Lab story (which I kind of think i…

Devil's advocate: why should they be selective about who they receive donations from?

Obviously they shouldn't name a building or something after the guy, but, to give an extreme example, would it be a problem to take money with no strings attached from a serial killer or war criminal?

Edit: Okay, this is a pretty good answer: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20963945. I mean maybe it could be an acceptable solution for them to make a public statement like "we hate this guy but we're taking his money anyway", but having no association whatsoever is probably safer.

Re: Harvard admits to receiving $9M from Jeffrey Epstein

#26

Post by mistermann »

foxhill wrote: post #17
echelon wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen posts claiming that he was an intelligence asset for either the CIA or Mossad. I didn't see any proof, so take it with a grain of salt.

if it can be asserted without evidence, it can be dismissed without discussion.

Whether that approach is wise under the circumstances is another question. Personally, the safety of children ranks fairly high on my priority list, so I believe all details of this case are worthy of consideration.

Re: Harvard admits to receiving $9M from Jeffrey Epstein

#28

Post by nullc »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #16
JackFr wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The importance vis-a-vis MIT is the dates. If this article is accurate Harvard stopped taking the money once he was a convicted sex offender, MIT didn't.

--- Well, MIT put Epstein on their donor blacklist, but Joi Ito specifically circumvented that and tried to hide the source of Epstein's donations in 2013. --- Edit: I stand corrected as nullc points out below (and why no strikethroughs HN?)

> MIT put Epstein on their donor blacklist, but Joi Ito specifically circumvented

Turns out that is essentially false, see my other reply to you in this thread.

Re: Harvard admits to receiving $9M from Jeffrey Epstein

#29

Post by derivagral »

parsimo2010 wrote: post #13

The Hill does a decent job of reporting this without sensationalizing it. Of note: They accepted money from him, but it was all prior to his 2008 conviction in Florida. I don't fault Harvard for this, and I think this is just one of those tangential stories that pop up whenever the media sensationalizes something. Also note that this is Harvard, which is separate from the MIT Medial Lab story (which I kind of think i…

The primary difference is that the MIT institution took money from him despite being internally barred from doing so. As you mention, at least Harvard did this before the original trial.

As far as your last comment, there's been a lot of historic and present discussion around exactly that blend of science/ethics (WW2, milgram, etc.)

Re: Harvard admits to receiving $9M from Jeffrey Epstein

#30

Post by msghacq »

_qswe wrote: post #25
parsimo2010 wrote: post #13

The Hill does a decent job of reporting this without sensationalizing it. Of note: They accepted money from him, but it was all prior to his 2008 conviction in Florida. I don't fault Harvard for this, and I think this is just one of those tangential stories that pop up whenever the media sensationalizes something. Also note that this is Harvard, which is separate from the MIT Medial Lab story (which I kind of think i…

Devil's advocate: why should they be selective about who they receive donations from? Obviously they shouldn't name a building or something after the guy, but, to give an extreme example, would it be a problem to take money with no strings attached from a serial killer or war criminal? Edit: Okay, this is a pretty good answer: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20963945 . I mean maybe it could be an acceptable solu…

I mention in another comment:

Epstein cited his relationships with these schools (built through fundraising) repeatedly both to intimidate his victims into silence and convince authorities to let him go. This wasn't a case of him sending a check and walking away, he was extracting a lot of value for his predatory operation from these institutions. They should face the music for their role in what happened.

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