Sao Paulo
According to the Wall Street Journal, before his sex crimes conviction, investor Jeffrey Epstein discovered an extramarital relationship between Bill Gates, 67, and a Russian bridge player, a deck of cards. According to the American newspaper, the financier used this circumstance to blackmail the founder of Microsoft.
Epstein died in prison in 2019.
Gates is said to have met the alleged lover in 2010 at the age of 55 when she was in her 20s. In 2013, Epstein would have offered the young woman a computer science course. In 2017, according to the WSJ, Epstein emailed Gates demanding a refund for the lessons.
Days before this email was sent, the investor had unsuccessfully tried to convince Gates to participate in a multibillion dollar charity fund Epstein was trying to set up with bank JPMorgan Chase.
According to people who saw the message, Epstein hinted in the email that he could reveal Gates’ affair if the Microsoft founder ended their relationship.
“Gates only met Epstein for philanthropic reasons. After repeatedly failing to bring these matters to Gates’ attention, Epstein tried unsuccessfully to use a previous relationship to threaten Gates,” a spokeswoman for the tech billionaire said.
Epstein was accused in 2006 of sexually abusing women, including minors the youngest was 14 years old. In 2008 he was convicted of employing a minor in prostitution. He served a prison sentence and was put on the US sex offenders list.
Subsequently, the Miami Herald published an article with complaints from dozens of women who claim to have been abused by Epstein. He was arrested in 2019 for trafficking in women. That same year he died in his cell while awaiting trial. The medical expert said it was suicide.
Russian bridge player Mila Antonova declined to comment on the relationship with Gates, saying she didn’t know who Epstein was at the time of the meeting. “I had no idea he was a criminal or that he had ulterior motives.”
“I just thought he was a successful businessman who wanted to help,” Antonova said. “I’m disgusted by what Epstein did,” she added.
Gates said he rarely met Epstein to speak alone about philanthropy and he regretted it. At that time he was part of the command of Microsoft. He resigned from the company’s board of directors in 2020, but remains a technology advisor and largest shareholder.
According to the WSJ, this episode shows Epstein working to gain money and influence. Between 2008 and his conviction in 2019, the financier convicted of trafficking in women encountered politicians, businessmen, academics and celebrities. He distributed blessings and used his loans for his own purposes.
Until relations fell apart and Epstein used facts he knew against the caller.
In Epstein’s contact list, Gates was among the most famous with a fortune of more than $100 billion and the founding of Microsoft.
Gates has had at least six dates with Epstein since 2011, some at the investor’s home. According to flight records, the Microsoft founder traveled from New Jersey to Florida on Epstein’s private jet in March 2013. In the same month, the two met with a member of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee in France.
Gates’ encounter with his Russian mistress had to do with playing bridge. The founder of Microsoft states that he learned to play from his parents, and card games have been one of his hobbies ever since. The two met while playing.
According to information on LinkedIn, Mila attended university in Russia between 2000 and 2005 before moving to the United States and starting a bridge club.
In a 2010 video, she reportedly faced Gates in a bridge tournament. “I didn’t hit him, but I tried to hit him,” she said in the footage.
At the time, Mila was looking for funds to start a digital bridge teaching platform, according to documents obtained by the WSJ. She applied for $500,000 and was unsuccessful. Epstein then paid for the card player’s computer course.
“Epstein offered to pay the school directly for the course, but didn’t ask for anything in return. I don’t know why he did it,” she says.
A Gates confidante, Boris Nikolic, was the one who introduced Mila Epstein. Nikolic told the WSJ that he regrets his encounters with Epstein.
Epstein held meetings with others close to Gates, such as Microsoft executive Nathan Myrvold and Melanie Walker of the Gates Foundation. The meetings are included in documents received by the WSJ.
Executives also regret the contacts they had with Epstein.
Epstein used this apparent closeness to Gates to propose to JPMorgan the creation of a charity fund, the minimum contribution of which would cost $100 million per person. The initiative would bring millions in compensation to the investor convicted of sex crimes.
Gates’ spokeswoman claims Epstein never worked for the Microsoft founder and that the ties to JPMorgan cited in the news were disingenuous.
“Essentially, this Fund Bill will enable [Gates] Access the people, investments, places and governance of the highest caliber without compromising the security of your marriage and your relationships with current Gates Foundation employees,” Epstein wrote in August 2011 to two JP Morgan executives, Jes Staley and Mary Erdoes.
However, the charity fund never got off the ground. “The bank didn’t need Epstein as a client,” said a JPMorgan spokesman. The financial institution says it would have preferred never to do business with the investor since learning of the trafficking convictions.