Sex offender Jeffrey Epstein revealed that Microsoft founder Bill Gates had an affair with a Russian bridge player, then apparently used the information to threaten him. Three sources told The Wall Street Journal on Sunday.
According to the report, the Microsoft founder met the actress around 2010, when she was in her 20s, and he was in his 50s. Epstein met with the actress in 2013 and later paid her to attend programming school. In 2017, he sent Gates an email asking him for reimbursement of the cost of the course.
The email came after the sex offender failed to persuade Gates to take part in the multibillion-dollar charitable foundation he was trying to establish. The implication behind the announcement, according to people who saw it, is that Epstein implicitly threatened to expose Gates' alleged affair if he did not keep in touch with him.
Bill Gates. Philanthropic goals, photo: AFP
"Mr. Gates met Epstein only for philanthropic purposes. After repeatedly failing to drag Gates beyond these matters, Epstein tried unsuccessfully to leverage a past relationship to threaten Mr. Gates," a spokesperson for the Microsoft founder said.
Jeffrey Epstein was charged in 2006 with sexually exploiting girls around the age of 14 and was convicted in 2008 of soliciting prostitution of underage girls. As a result, he served time in a Florida prison. After dozens more women were reported complaining of sexual abuse in the United States, he was arrested again in 2019 for serious sex crimes. A year later, he took his own life in a detention cell awaiting trial.
Gates, 67, the founder of Microsoft and one of the company's shareholders, said he had met Epstein several times but only discussed philanthropy with him. He later called these meetings a "mistake."
Mila Antonova, the Russian bridge player, declined to comment on her relationship with Gates, but said she did not know who Epstein was when they met. "I didn't know he was a criminal or a foreign motive," Antonova said. "I thought he was just a successful businessman who wanted to help. I'm disgusted with Epstein and what he did."
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