Bill Ackman goes scorched earth on MIT and Business Insider after ‘attacks on my family’
Cami Mondeaux
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Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman is going on the offensive against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Business Insider after the news source reported allegations his wife plagiarized portions of her dissertation at the university. Ackman specifically targeted the research university’s chairman with calls for his resignation.
In a statement posted to X (formerly Twitter) on Friday evening, Ackman resurfaced allegations against Mark Gorenberg, claiming the MIT chairman used the university’s donor-advised fund to allocate his contributions to a DEI non-profit organization operated by Gorenberg’s wife. In doing so, Ackman claimed Gorenberg put MIT’s tax-exempt status “at risk.”
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Ackman reposted the thread in which he originally made the accusations in December after reports emerged earlier this week from Business Insider citing at least 15 instances of plagiarism in his wife Neri Oxman’s dissertation. The report was published after a weekslong push from Ackman for then-Harvard President Claudine Gay to resign from her role due to her own embroilment with plagiarism allegations.
Ackman targeted Business Insider for publishing the allegations, accusing the outlet of not giving the couple adequate time to “research their claims prior to publication.” The billionaire went even further to suggest he would execute a review of all journalists from the media company to search for plagiarism, accusing the author of the story of “trying to destroy other people’s reputations.”
“Not only did Ms. Long not contact me. I have never spoken to her in my life,” Ackman wrote. “Clearly, she had already written her article prior to contacting Fran, our head of communications at 5:19pm when she told him they would be publishing shortly this evening, which they did around 7:10pm. … This is the worst form of so-called journalism.”
Ackman further criticized the story, calling it “unfortunate that my actions to address problems in higher education have led to these attacks on my family.” Instead, the billionaire called attention to “apparent tax fraud” by Gorenberg, which he said “mainstream media failed to report” late last year.
“I guess MIT Chairman Gorenberg did not like it when I outed him for apparent tax fraud using MIT’s donor advised fund. By doing so, he put at risk MIT’s tax exempt status,” Ackman wrote in a post on X. “The mainstream media failed to report on the thread below. They might want to take a closer look now. Following up on the below thread should be a profitable exercise for an IRS whistleblower. I understand that the IRS pays attractive bounties to helpful sources.”
In Ackman’s original post, he accused Gorenberg of donating money to an MIT donor-advised fund that was then funneled into Parity.org, a nonprofit organization where his wife serves as the founder, CEO, and CFO. Gorenberg is also listed as the treasurer of the organization.
“[Donor advised funds] are only permitted to give to legitimate charities that don’t afford a personal benefit to the individual or family of the individual who donated to the DAF,” Ackman wrote. “It does not appear that the MIT Distribution Committee did proper due diligence on Parity.org, and/or received adequate disclosure. Alternatively, the MIT DAF made special exceptions for Chairman Gorenberg in donating to Parity.org.”
The Internal Revenue Service has previously come out against the possible abuse of donor-advised funds, imposing severe penalties for those found in violation — penalties that Ackman said Gorenberg put MIT at risk of enduring. Those penalties, he said, include the MIT fund losing its tax exemption status, the MIT Corporation becoming subject to excise taxes, and the tax deduction incurred by Gorenberg’s donations being disallowed.
“MIT’s reputation and the tax status of the MIT DAF have been put at serious risk by its Chairman who received a inappropriate personal benefit by using the DAF to achieve substantial tax benefits for himself,” Ackman wrote. “The MIT DAF Distribution Committee was either very sloppy, and/or it received inadequate disclosure about Parity.org, or the Chairman used his apparent authority to cause the MIT DAF to consummate a transaction that would not have been approved in the ordinary course.”
Ackman’s onslaught comes after the billionaire and his wife have come under intense scrutiny over plagiarism allegations against Oxman, which he argues are retaliation for his repeated calls toward university presidents to resign over their stances toward antisemitism on college campuses. Ackman was especially vocal about Gay’s resignation amid separate charges of plagiarism by the former university president.
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Although Ackman was a notable proponent of Gay being ousted, it’s more likely her eventual removal was caused by a loss of support from the school faculty and the coverage of the plagiarism allegations against her by the student newspaper.
The Washington Examiner contacted MIT for comment but has not received a response.