While the Massachusetts Institute of Technology accepted $850,000 from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein over several years, there's no evidence Epstein used Bill Gates or Apollo Global Management Founder Leon Black to funnel money to the school, an independent report released Friday found.
The report, commissioned by the university, found Epstein made 10 donations, most after his 2008 sex crimes conviction, to the MIT Media Lab and engineering professor Seth Lloyd.
Why Gates And Black Were Brought Up
The New Yorker reported in September that Epstein was directing Black and Microsoft Corp MSFT founder Gates' contributions to obscure the origin of the gifts, though the full reasoning behind the alleged association wasn't clear.
Friday's report by independent law firm Goodwin Procter said Epstein claimed to have arranged for Gates give $2 million and for Black to give $5 million to the Media Lab. Representatives of both denied the claim.
"Notably, we did not find any evidence that the money donated by Gates or Black actually was Epstein’s money — that is, there is no evidence that Gates and Black acted to 'launder' Epstein’s money," the investigators wrote.
The donations were all sought by Lloyd or former Media Lab director Joi Ito, who has since resigned, the report said.
Epstein was found dead in his jail cell in August while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges and ruled to have killed himself.
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