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Comment by news_to_me | Hacker News Reader

I think I'm missing something with all this — hopefully someone can link me to better resources, or help me out.

What exactly did Ito do wrong here? It sounds like he had no knowledge of Epstein's misdeeds while they were associates.

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Epstein's conviction for raping a minor was public information at the point that Joi Ito raised money from, coinvested with and visited his homes. Far more information is included in Ethan's MIT resignation post:

He should step down from the boards of the Media Lab and The New York Times. Far more information is provided in Ethan's resignation letter than in Ito's "apology":

http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2019/08/20/on-me-and-the-...

There's no way Ito didn't know about this, it would come up with a simple Google search. Investors do diligence.

Yep, that makes sense. I wish more of that info was in the apology — Ito makes it sound like he was just unaware.

Joi Ito associated with Epstein (personally and financially) 5 years after Epstein had been convicted as a pedophile. The assertion people are making here is that he either didn't do his due diligence and in this particular instance, said lack of due diligence reflects extremely poorly on him or...he knew (probably likely) about Epstein's history and did business with him anyway (which also reflects extremely poorly on him) -- as the saying goes "money talks".

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