An elite group within one of America's most prestigious universities is embroiled in the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein scandal, and its director just quit - here's what's going on

In his career as a financier, Epstein befriended some of the world's most famous names: People like Bill Gates and Elon Musk, as well as lesser known names like MIT's Marvin Minsky and LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman.

Another such lesser known name: Joichi Ito, the now-former director of MIT's elite Media Lab group.

MIT's acclaimed Media Lab is known for its innovative work in a variety of tech-related fields. Its director, Joichi Ito, directly facilitated donations from Epstein's foundations into MIT through Media Lab.

In addition to his work at MIT, Ito founded and heads an investment company named Neoteny that funds a variety of tech-related startups which also received funding from Epstein.

"Regrettably, over the years, the Lab has received money through some of the foundations that he controlled. I knew about these gifts and these funds were received with my permission. I also allowed him to invest in several of my funds which invest in tech startup companies outside of MIT," Ito wrote in an apology letter on August 15.

Following the New Yorker piece published over the past weekend, Ito resigned from MIT altogether.

"After giving the matter a great deal of thought over the past several days and weeks, I think that it is best that I resign as director of the media lab and as a professor and employee of the Institute, effective immediately," Ito said in the letter sent internally at MIT.

Founded in 1985, the Media Lab is a research group within MIT dedicated to "mixing and matching" ideas from various disciplines such as design, art, media and computer science. The projects created at the Media Lab are often well ahead of their time, and the Lab is credited with being a pioneer in technologies like wearable computing, social media and robotics.

One of the Media Lab's cofounders is Nicholas Negroponte, who served as its director until 2000.

After news of the Epstein connection to MIT's Ito surfaced, Negroponte reportedly attended an internal meeting in September and said that he had recommended Ito take the money and that he would still advise him to do so.

"If you wind back the clock I would still say 'Take it,'" Negroponte said according to a report in the MIT Technology Review.

Negroponte subsequently told the MIT Technology Review that his comments were referring only to the decision to take Epstein's money in the years following the 2008 conviction of soliciting sex with a minor. Negroponte said that he would not advise taking the money knowing that Epstein was facing new sex trafficking charges.

Despite the fact that Epstein's name was listed as "disqualified" on an internal MIT list of potential donors, The New Yorker reports that Epstein's donations were still accepted by the university through loopholes.

Moreover, a handful of internal emails that included Ito and Media Lab's former director of development and strategy, Peter Cohen, highlight the Media Lab's attempt to obscure donations from Epstein.

"Make sure this gets accounted for as anonymous," Ito wrote in an internal email to a member of his staff in reference to a donation from Epstein. "Jeffrey money, needs to be anonymous. Thanks," Cohen added.

In the wake of Ito's resignation and the New Yorker investigation, MIT president L. Rafael Reif announced an "immediate, thorough and independent investigation" of the company's donation history and practices. "We are actively assessing how best to improve our policies, processes and procedures to fully reflect MIT's values and prevent such mistakes in the future," he said. "Our internal review process continues, and what we learn from it will inform the path ahead."