American technology entrepreneur Bill Gates has apologised to employees of the Gates Foundation over his past association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, while maintaining that he engaged in no wrongdoing.
The Microsoft co-founder also acknowledged having two affairs with Russian women and admitted to making mistakes that, he said, had cast a shadow over the philanthropic organisation. However, he insisted that he had no involvement in Epstein’s criminal activities.
Gates was among numerous prominent figures—including celebrities, politicians, business leaders and technology executives—whose connections to Epstein surfaced in a trove of documents released online last month by the US Justice Department. The materials, collectively referred to as the ‘Epstein files’, included tens of thousands of pages of emails, interview transcripts, photographs and call logs, with some names redacted.
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During a town hall meeting on Tuesday, Gates said he had two affairs with Russian women that Epstein later became aware of, but emphasised that they were unrelated to Epstein’s victims. “I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit,” Gates said.
Addressing photographs included in the recently released files that showed him with women whose identities were obscured, Gates said the images were taken at Epstein’s request with his assistants following meetings. “To be clear, I never spent any time with victims, the women around him,” he said.
Gates described it as a ‘huge mistake’ to have spent time with Epstein and to have brought senior Foundation executives into meetings with him. “I apologise to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made,” he said.
The philanthropist said he first met Epstein in 2011, three years after Epstein had pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution. Gates admitted that he had not ‘properly checked’ Epstein’s background, despite knowing about what he referred to as an ‘18-month thing’ that had restricted Epstein’s travel. He also revealed that he continued meeting Epstein even after his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, voiced concerns in 2013.
Speaking about his former spouse, he said, “To give her credit, she was always kind of skeptical about the Epstein thing.” According to the report, Gates told staff that he continued meeting Epstein through 2014, travelled on a private jet with him and met him in Germany, France, New York and Washington. “I never stayed overnight,” he said, nor did he visit Epstein’s private island.
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