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A comment on Questions raised about research by OpenAg Initiative at M.I.T. Media Lab. Parent comment

Re:Questions raised about research by OpenAg Initiative at M... by toss1 on Sunday September 22, 2019 @08:02PM (#21044858)
It's bad because you're effectively laundering Illegally-gotten money and legitimizing a criminal. It's exactly this attitude that serious criminals count upon to both enjoy their gains and improve their immunity. (see also RUS oligarchs & other kleptocratic 'leaders')

(Edit: I'm not downvoting the parent, it's a legit question.

But it seriously raises concerns when a straightforward factual response like this gets effectively instant 3 downvotes -- IDGAF, but contrasting the strong moral codes in tech that caused things like the Google withdrawal from the AI weapons program, there is also a strong amoral current that doesn't care about where the money comes from to do development, and it can create real consequences as referenced above.)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Questions raised about research by OpenAg Initiative at M... by icebraining on Sunday September 22, 2019 @08:33PM (#21045017)
> Illegally-gotten money

Wait, did Epstein earn his money illegally? I thought his "only" crime was molesting minors and pimping them out to his friends?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Questions raised about research by OpenAg Initiative at M... by neffy on Sunday September 22, 2019 @09:30PM (#21045232)
It seems like one of the more interesting aspects of all this, is that nobody really knows where he got his money from. There is an absence of the kind of filings there should be, if he was actually investing in some kind of hedge/venture capital fund.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Questions raised about research by OpenAg Initiative at M... by toss1 on Monday September 23, 2019 @12:05PM (#21050170)
Epstein's sources of funding are a real mystery, and the path of that money and the financial structures leaves strong indications of illegal activity starting with being a conduit for money-laundering. The whole point of laundering money is to make the gains of everything from child sex trafficking to state corruption look like plain ordinary respectable earned income when it is not even close to that.
[ Parent | on HN ]