Billionaire Bill Gates has claimed that disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was aware of his marital infidelities and used them to pressure him. He made the statements while voluntarily appearing before a House Oversight Committee in a closed-door hearing in Washington on Wednesday.
Gates said he, however, never had any personal relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, and cut ties with Epstein after he failed to deliver on his promise to help raise billions of dollars for global public health initiatives. The tech entrepreneur added that though he was aware of Epstein’s prior legal issues, he did not fully understand the extent of the crimes he committed. Epstein was already a registered sex offender then, after he had pleaded guilty in Florida three years earlier to soliciting prostitution from a minor.
“I accepted the introduction without applying the scrutiny I should have,” Gates told lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
He went on to state that he had first met Epstein in 2011 through a few people he knew, and that Epstein had told him he could help him raise “billions of dollars” for Gates’s philanthropic activities through people Epstein provided tax and estate services to.
Gates stated that their meetings were spread between 2011 and 2014, with three in 2011 and two in 2012, during which their primary topic of discussion was Gates’s goals and ways to meet them, like “identifying potential giving structures, such as donor-advised funds, and how to enrol individuals he claimed were interested in making significant contributions”.
By 2014, Gates stated that he understood their discussions would not be executed as the group of “potential donors” Epstein had brought together was not interested in Gates’s work. Gates then stated that he told Epstein, “we would go no further.”
He claimed his interactions with the paedophile were 'limited' and testified that he cut off all contact in 2014. 'He was unsuccessful in this effort, but it shows some of the ways he tried to leverage his interactions with me to further his agenda. I should never have met with Epstein in the first place,' Gates said.
Gates, however, stated that he learned Epstein had become aware of his marriage infidelities. “I learned Epstein had become aware of sensitive information about my personal life, including the fact that I had been unfaithful in my marriage. These affairs had nothing to do with my interactions with Epstein, but they were painful for my family,” Gates said, according to his prepared statement to the House Oversight Committee.
He stated that “I never witnessed nor had any indication that Epstein was engaged in ongoing criminal conduct. I never went to his island, his ranch, or his Florida home. I have never victimised anyone. While he may have sought to foster a personal relationship, I was never interested in that and never reciprocated.”
Jeffrey Epstein passed away while on trial in a prison in New York on 10 August 2019 on charges of sex trafficking.
Gates’ friendship with Epstein came to light when photos and emails in the Epstein files surfaced. In one email, Epstein claims Gates planned to secretly slip Melinda an antibiotic to treat a sexually transmitted disease he caught from 'Russian girls.' The files also had photos of Gates posing with young women.
