According to The Daily Beast, in September 2013 billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife Melinda allegedly met with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in New York City, prompting anger from Melinda, who reportedly told her husband she was furious and uncomfortable with his association with Epstein.
That meeting allegedly occurred on the same day the couple accepted the Lasker Bloomberg Public Service Award at the Pierre Hotel.
That was reportedly not the first time Gates had met Epstein; The Daily Beast pointed out: “As The New York Times reported, starting in 2011, Gates met with Epstein on numerous occasions. This was three years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting an underage girl in Florida; by then, accusations that Epstein exploited girls and young women were widely reported in the press.”
The Times also noted that Gates had met Epstein at various times between 2011 to 2013 and Epstein attempted to solicit donations for a charitable fund. “In 2013, Gates also took a ride on Epstein’s private jet (christened by tabloids as the Lolita Express), from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey to Palm Beach, Florida, according to flight records reviewed by the Times,” The Daily Beast added.
CNBC reported in 2019, “Epstein’s discussions with Gates included at least one meeting, which took place in New York in 2013, while Gates was still Microsoft’s chairman.”
Gates said in 2019, “I met him. I didn’t have any business relationship or friendship with him. I didn’t go to New Mexico or Florida or Palm Beach or any of that. There were people around him who were saying, ‘Hey, if you want to raise money for global health and get more philanthropy, he knows a lot of rich people.’ Every meeting where I was with him were meetings with men. I was never at any parties or anything like that. He never donated any money to anything that I know about.”
“Gates’ friendship with Epstein—who for years was accused of molesting scores of underage girls—still haunts Melinda, according to friends of the couple who spoke to The Daily Beast,” The Daily Beast added.
According to the Times, Boris Nikolic, a graduate of Harvard Medical School and a “former adviser to Gates who was mysteriously named a backup executor in Epstein’s last will and testament,” acted as an intermediary between Gates and Epstein; the Times also named Melanie Walker, “who worked at the Gates foundation and served as a science advisor to Epstein.”
“A person close to Walker told The Daily Beast she did not attend nor help set up any meetings between Gates and Epstein. Nikolic did not return multiple requests for comment,” The Daily Beast reported.
The Daily Beast quoted an “associate in the technology world who’s attended the same events as Epstein” saying, “If you ask Bill Gates, he’ll say, ‘Oh I had absolutely no idea he wasn’t up to anything of the highest moral character.’ But I seriously doubted Epstein’s moral character.” The “associate” added of Melinda’s reported dislike of Epstein that Epstein’s photos of former President Bill Clinton and the Pope were “really obnoxious, especially if you’re somebody like Melinda and hanging around with heads of state anyway. Then to have someone do this endless name-dropping…”
Gates reportedly emailed the Gates Foundation staff after first meeting Epstein, “His lifestyle is very different and kind of intriguing although it would not work for me.” Gates’ spokeswoman explained the email by attesting he “was referring only to the unique decor” and “Epstein’s habit of spontaneously bringing acquaintances in to meet Mr. Gates.”
The New Yorker reported that Epstein helped set up Gates’ $2 million donation to the lab, writing, “Epstein appeared to serve as an intermediary between the lab and other wealthy donors, soliciting millions of dollars in donations from individuals and organizations, including the technologist and philanthropist Bill Gates and the investor Leon Black. According to the records obtained by The New Yorker and accounts from current and former faculty and staff of the media lab, Epstein was credited with securing at least $7.5 million in donations for the lab, including two million dollars from Gates and $5.5 million from Black, gifts the e-mails describe as ‘directed’ by Epstein or made at his behest.”