Jeffrey Epstein Threatened To Expose Bill Gates’ Affair, Report Says

Topline

Jeffrey Epstein apparently threatened to expose an affair between Bill Gates and a Russian woman after pushing the Microsoft co-founder to participate in a multibillion-dollar charitable fund, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, making Gates the latest billionaire in recent weeks to be tied to Epstein.

Bill Gates speaks during the Global Fund’s Seventh Replenishment Conference, Wednesday, Sept. 21, … [+] 2022, in New York. A

AP/Evan Vucci

Key Facts

Gates purportedly met the woman—a bridge player who was in her 20s—around 2010, and Epstein met her in 2013 when she was seeking funding to start an online bridge tutorial platform, later paying for her to attend a software programming boot camp, the Journal reported, citing multiple unnamed sources.

In 2017, after the affair had ended, Epstein, a convicted sex offender, asked Gates to reimburse him for the cost of the course, in an email that reportedly read like an implicit threat to reveal their affair if Gates did not maintain an association with Epstein.

Epstein sent the apparent threat after struggling for years to convince Gates to participate in a charitable fund Epstein was attempting to establish with JPMorgan Chase, an endeavor that was not successful, according to the Journal.

Gates’ spokesperson told the Journal he did not pay Epstein back for the course, nor has he had “any financial dealings” with the disgraced financier, and Gates only met with Epstein for philanthropic purposes (Gates’ spokesperson did not respond to Forbes’ request for comment.)

Key Background

Gates met with Epstein multiple times starting in 2011 to discuss philanthropy, years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution, the New York Times first reported. The billionaire has distanced himself from Epstein in recent years, following Epstein’s 2019 sex trafficking charges and subsequent death in federal custody. Gates said he met with Epstein in the hopes of getting billions of dollars for global health initiatives, but later described the interactions as a “huge mistake.” Melinda French Gates, the billionaire’s ex-wife, also thought the meetings were a mistake. In an interview discussing the couple’s divorce, French Gates said she made it clear to Gates that she “did not like that [Gates]

had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein.” French Gates disclosed that she met Epstein once to “see who this man was” and found him to be “abhorrent” and “evil personified.” Sunday’s report is not the first time Gates has been accused of having an affair. In 2021, Gates admitted to having an affair “almost 20 years ago,” but only after the Journal published an investigation finding that Microsoft’s board members asked Gates to step down from its board in 2020 as they looked into his alleged romantic relationship with a female staffer.

Forbes Valuation

We estimate Gates’ net worth at $114.3 billion, making him the world’s sixth-wealthiest person.

Tangent

The revelation about Epstein’s threat to Gates is the latest in a string of news reports linking Epstein to billionaires. Epstein was found dead in a New York City jail cell in August 2019 from an apparent suicide, while he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges for years of abusing underage women at his Palm Beach, Florida, estate and on his private island in the tax haven U.S. Virgin Islands. Last week, the New York Times reported billionaire PayPal and Palantir cofounder Peter Thiel may have had multiple meetings with Epstein, though the purpose of their meetings is unclear. Also, the Journal reported that Epstein paid the president of Bard College $150,000 and reportedly helped MIT professor Noam Chomsky move money. Meanwhile, billionaire Leon Black was sued last year by a woman who says he raped her in Epstein’s New York home—an allegation Black denies.

Surprising Fact

JPMorgan Chase is currently in the midst of a civil lawsuit brought by prosecutors in the U.S. Virgin Islands that alleges the bank benefited from Epstein’s sex trafficking when he was a client. Last week, the judge in the case ruled prosecutors can subpoena billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk after prosecutors said they believed Epstein “may have referred or attempted to refer (Musk) to JPMorgan”—Musk tweeted in response Epstein “never advised me on anything whatsoever.” Other big names have also been subpoenaed in the same lawsuit, including Google cofounder Sergey Brin, Hyatt Hotels executive chairman Thomas Pritzker and real estate mogul Mortimer Zuckerman. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is also expected to sit for a deposition, despite the bank denying top executives were aware of Epstein’s behavior.