Microsoft co-founder and billionaire Bill Gates, who has repeatedly minimized his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, visited the convicted sex offender multiple times in the years after Epstein was released from prison, according to a New York Times investigation published Saturday.

In fact, starting in 2011, Gates and Epstein met repeatedly. A report from the Times indicates that they met up at least three times at Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse. The report was supported by emails, photographs and other documents, as well as interviews with more than a dozen people familiar with the relationship.

In one 2011 e-mail after his first meeting with Epstein, Gates told colleagues: 

“His lifestyle is very different and kind of intriguing although it would not work for me.”1

A Gates spokeswoman told the Times that the email “was referring only to the unique décor of the Epstein residence,”1 and his “habit of spontaneously bringing acquaintances in to meet Mr. Gates.”1

RELATED STORY:

Epstein, who was indicted in July on federal sex trafficking charges and denied bail, committed suicide in August in a federal prison.

Gates admitted to the Wall Street Journal in September that he did meet with Epstein after the financier pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution. Gates told the journal:

“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.“1

The Times reports that Epstein and Gates first met in person on Jan. 31, 2011 at Epstein’s Upper East Side townhouse. Former Miss Sweden, Eva Andersson-Dubin, was also in attendance with her 15-year-old daughter for the gathering, which lasted several hours. (Andersson-Dubin, who had once dated Epstein, and her husband, Glenn Dubin, a friend and business partner of Epstein’s, declined to comment on the Times story.) Afterward their initial meeting, Epstein bragged to his friends and associates: “Bill’s great.”1

RELATED STORY:

Gates also praised Epstein the next day in an email of his own, according to the report, telling his colleagues:

“A very attractive Swedish woman and her daughter dropped by and I ended up staying there quite late.“1

The Times also reports that Epstein spoke with the Gates Foundation and JPMorgan on a possible multibillion-dollar global health charitable fund that would have generated enormous fees for Epstein. The fund never materialized. A representative for Gates said the tech giant and the foundation were unaware that Epstein would have received fees from the project.

Gates’s spokeswoman, Bridgitt Arnold, told the New York Times that Gates “regrets” every meeting he had with Epstein. She told the Times:

“Bill Gates regrets ever meeting with Epstein and recognizes it was an error in judgment to do so. Gates recognizes that entertaining Epstein’s ideas related to philanthropy gave Epstein an undeserved platform that was at odds with Gates’s personal values and the values of his foundation.”1

RELATED STORY:

However, this statement contradicts Ronan Farrow’s New Yorker investigation. Farrow found that in October 2014, Epstein “directed” a $2 million contribution from Gates to the MIT Media Lab, along with another $5.5 million from investor Leon Black. 

In another interesting twist, MIT’s donor database had Epstein listed as “disqualified,”1 yet the Media Lab continued to take his money. They intentionally marked his contributions as anonymous, and even “consulted him about the use of the funds.”1

Joi Ito, the lab’s director, allegedly received an email from Epstein saying:

“Gates would like a write up on our one science program for tues next week.”1

Ito then wrote in an internal email:

“This is a $2M gift from Bill Gates directed by Jeffrey Epstein.”1

To which Peter Cohen, the lab’s former Director of Development and Strategy, replied: 

“For gift recording purposes, we will not be mentioning Jeffrey’s name as the impetus for this gift.”1

RELATED STORY:

CNBC reported that Epstein supposedly secured a meeting with Gates after aggressively pressing his business allies to put in a good word for him. The report says the Microsoft mogul met Epstein in 2013 in New York, along with other wealthy partrons. They met to discuss “growing philanthropy.”1

After this meeting, Gates reportedly took a ride on Epstein’s plane to meet his family in Florida.

The Times also reported that Gates and Epstein were spotted in a private conversation at a 2011 TED conference in California.

After Gates’ made a $2 million contribution to MIT in October 2014, he allegedly stopped talking to Epstein. The financier complained about the snub to an acquaintance at the end of that year. However, the Times also reported that at least two senior Gates Foundation officials kept in contact with Epstein until late 2017.

But Gates was not Epstein’s only Microsoft connection. When Epstein’s last will and testament was filed in August – just two days before his jail-cell suicide – the document named Boris Nikolic, a past adviser to Gates and his foundation, as the backup executor to his $577 million estate.

RELATED STORY:

Nikolic, a biotech venture capitalist who worked at Harvard, said in a statement obtained by Bloomberg, that he was “shocked” to learn he was listed in the will. He formally declined the role, telling the New York Post: 

“I was not consulted in these matters and I have no intent to fulfill these duties, whatsoever.“1

The Times reports that Nikolic was brought into Epstein’s circle through Melanie Walker, a colleague at the Gates Foundation. Walker told the Times she had met Epstein in 1992 just after she graduated from college. Epstein told her he could get her a modeling job at Victoria’s Secret, the company owned by his only known client, Lex Wexner. Walker later lived in a Manhattan apartment building owned by Epstein and remained close to him over the years.

Microsoft’s former Chief Technology Officer Nathan Myhrvold, also reportedly buddied around with Epstein. 

A Vanity Fair report this summer said that “Myhrvold has been close with Epstein for years” and that the financier visited Myhrvold’s investment firm, Intellectual Ventures, with some “young girls” who looked like “Russian models.”1 A source told the magazine that Myhrvold openly talked about using Epstein’s private jet and staying at his Palm Beach and New York mansions. 

Myhrvold’s spokesperson denied such claims, telling Vanity Fair: 

“Nathan has no knowledge of or any involvement in the various crimes that Mr. Epstein is accused of committing. He was never a client of his money management business, and he’s never done business with him of any sort. Back in the day Epstein was a regular at TED conferences and he was a large donor to basic scientific research, so while Nathan knew him and has socialized with him, that’s exactly where their association ends.”1

However, Alan Dershowitz, Epstein’s friend and former attorney, has tried to throw Myhrvold under the bus for years.

RELATED STORY:

Virginia Roberts Giuffre has accused Epstein of keeping her as his “slave”1 and forcing her to have sex with Prince Andrew, Dershowitz, and a host of other high-profile men. ( The royal and the Harvard law professor have each denied her claims.)

Dershowitz, as part of his defense, claims Giuffre had sex with Myhrvold – not himself. Indeed, Giuffre’s defamation lawsuit against Dershowitz mentions this accusation, alleging in the complaint:

“In May 2015 Dershowitz requested confidential settlement negotiations with Ms. Roberts’ lawyers in which Dershowitz sought to convince Ms. Roberts lawyer that Ms. Roberts was mistaken, and that the person to whom Epstein had lent Ms. Roberts was Nathan Myhrvold, not Dershowitz.“1

Giuffre’s legal team denies Dershowitz’s allegation, saying:

“Dershowitz’s claim that Ms. Roberts confused him with Nathan Myhrvold was tested by showing Ms. Roberts pictures of both. She was, and is, clear that it was Dershowitz, not Myhrvold, with whom she had sex.“1

Source:
  1. Daily Beast