‘Jeffrey Epstein blackmailed Bill Gates over affair’
EPSTEIN SENT A SEEMINGLY THREATENING EMAIL TO GATES IN 2017, AFTER FAILED ATTEMPTS TO GET HIM TO JOIN HIS PLANS FOR A CHARITABLE FUND
Convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein reportedly blackmailed Bill Gates over his extramarital affair with a Russian bridge player, according to a new report published by The Wall Street Journal.
Epstein sent a seemingly threatening email to Gates in 2017, after multiple failed attempts to get Gates to join his plans to establish a multibillion-dollar charitable fund with JPMorgan, according to the report.
Speaking to the Journal, people familiar with the matter said that after Epstein found out about the Microsoft co-founder’s affair with Russian bridge player Mila Antonova, he tried to threaten Gates into reimbursing him for tuition costs that Epstein had initially covered for Antonova to attend software coding school.
“The tone of the message was that Epstein knew about the affair and could expose it, the people said,” the Journal reported, adding that a Gates spokesperson said that the Microsoft founder “had no financial dealings with Epstein”.
Gates reportedly met Antonova around 2010, when she was in her 20s, and went on to play bridge with her. In a 2010 YouTube video the Journal found, Antonova recounted a tournament she played with Gates, saying, “I didn’t beat him but I tried to kick him with my leg.”
According to documents reviewed by the Journal, Antonova was trying to establish an online bridge tutorial business and was attempting to secure funds.
She was introduced to Epstein through Boris Nikolic, a close adviser to Mr Gates. She met Epstein at his New York townhouse in November 2013, where she sought $500,000 for her initiative to “promote bridge by creating quality tutorials for beginners and advanced players”.
Antonova told the Journal that while Epstein ultimately didn’t invest in the initiative, he did provide her with an apartment in New York to stay in, and paid for her to attend software coding school.
“Epstein agreed to pay, and he paid directly to the school,” she told the outlet. “Nothing was exchanged. I don’t know why he did that.
“When I asked, he said something like he was wealthy and wanted to help people when he could. I am disgusted with Epstein and what he did.”
Around the same time, Epstein was trying to set up his own charitable fund with JP Morgan, which would require ultra-wealthy individuals to make a minimum $100m contribution and pay him millions of dollars in fees, according to documents reviewed by the Journal. This fund was meant to be a way to rebuild his reputation after he was forced to register as a sex offender and had pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution, people familiar with the matter told the Journal.
Documents reviewed by the Journal showed that Epstein’s fund was contingent upon obtaining support from Gates.
Epstein, in emails sent to JPMorgan executives, tried to come off as a close adviser to Mr Gates.
“In essence, this [fund] will allow Bill to have access to higher quality people, investment, allocation, governance without upsetting either his marriage or the sensitvities [sic] of the current foundation employees,” Epstein wrote in an email in August 2011.
Speaking to the Journal ,aJP Morgan spokesperson said: “The firm didn’t need him for introductions. Knowing what we know today, we wish we had never done business with him.”
Similarly, the Journal reported that a Gates spokesperson “has said Epstein never worked for Gates and misrepresented their ties in communications with JP Morgan and others”.
In 2019, federal prosecutors charged Epstein with sex trafficking a minor and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. Epstein denied the charges and was refused bail. He died months later in custody in an apparent suicide.