TOKYO (TR) – American internet entrepreneur Reid Hoffman wrote on X earlier this month that he once visited Little St. James Island Joi Ito.
To this point, Ito, 59, the one-time director of the MIT Media Lab and current president of the Chiba Institute of Technology, has neither confirmed nor denied whether he has ever visited the island, which was owned by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
On February 4, the X account for site Zerohedge.com asked Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, to clarify whether he had in fact visited the island.
“Yes, with Joi Ito, the Director of the MIT Media Lab, who had asked me to help MIT fundraise from Epstein. I regret ever interacting with Epstein,” he wrote.
Yes, with Joi Ito, the Director of the MIT Media Lab, who had asked me to help MIT fundraise from Epstein. I regret ever interacting with Epstein.
Trump’s own FBI looked into me and found “no hits.”
We should focus on prosecuting those who committed crimes and finally getting… pic.twitter.com/kc7yy4gGJp
— Reid Hoffman (@reidhoffman) February 4, 2026
Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice released 3 million pages of documents on Epstein, who committed suicide under mysterious circumstances in 2019 after being indicted on charges including sex trafficking.
Among the documents released were numerous emails with Japanese entrepreneur Ito, who served as director of the MIT Media Lab until his resignation in 2019 after Epstein’s monetary contributions to the lab became public.
Earlier this month, ITmedia News asked Ito if he had ever visited Little St. James Island. Owned by Epstein, it was reportedly a key location for the sexual abuse and trafficking of young women and underage girls.
“I checked, but I have never seen any criminal or illegal activity,” Ito said in neither clearly denying nor confirming.
Hoffman’s original comments in the post on X were directed at businessman and entrepreneur Elon Musk, who was found in the justice department’s files to have sent an email to Epstein on November 25, 2012. He asked, “What day/night will be the wildest party on your island?”
Hoffman added, “We should focus on prosecuting those who committed crimes and finally getting justice for the victims.”
