Designer Neri Oxman has apologised to her students at MIT Media Lab for accepting funds from the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The American-Israeli professor confirmed that her Mediated Matter Group received $125,000 from Epstein following a meeting in 2015. The financier was found dead in his prison cell in New York City last month, where he was awaiting trial for child sex-trafficking.
"I regret having received funds from Epstein, and deeply apologize to my students for their inadvertent involvement in this mess," Oxman said in a statement sent to Dezeen.
Oxman told to keep donations confidential
Oxman's apology follows the resignation of her boss, MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito, for allegedly covering up donations from Epstein. Her Mediated Matter Group, which explores "nature-inspired design and design-inspired nature," is one of the best-known departments at MIT Media Lab, which is part of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Oxman, who is currently on maternity leave, admitted giving a presentation of her group's work to Epstein in 2015.
She said she had been told to keep his donation confidential "so as not to enhance his reputation by association with MIT".
"In October 2015, Joi Ito, Director of the Media Lab, asked me to make a presentation about my group's research to Jeffrey Epstein along with other members of the MIT faculty who also presented their work," Oxman said in her stat...