Bill Gates admits extramarital affairs with two Russian women, Microsoft co-founder breaks silence on his role in Jeffrey Epstein crimes

Microsoft co-founder and American tech billionaire Bill Gates has admitted having affairs to two Russian women during his marriage to Melinda French, reports the Wall Street Journal. In a town hall on Tuesday, Bill Gates acknowledged that he had two affairs with Russian women that Epstein later discovered. While one of the women was a Russian bridge player he met through competitive bridge events, and the other one was a Russian nuclear physicist he encountered in the course of a business engagement. He said that his former aide and science adviser, Boris Nikolic, had informed Epstein about the affairs, which is how Epstein became aware of them.

“I did have affairs, one with a Russian bridge player who met me at bridge events, and one with a Russian nuclear physicist who I met through business activities,” he said.

Bill Gates denies involvement in Epstein crimes

But he denied any involvement with the victims of Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking underage girls.
He also apologized to the staff of the Gates Foundation over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, admitting he made mistakes that had cast a cloud over the philanthropic group. He insisted that he didn’t participate in Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.

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Bill Gates maintained that he did “nothing illicit” and acknowledged that his association with Jeffrey Epstein was a “huge mistake”, the report said. Gates told employees during the town hall: “I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit.” “To be clear, I never spent any time with victims, the women around him,” he added, as per the Journal report.
Bill Gates said that images in the recently released “Epstein files” showing him with women whose faces are redacted were photographs that Epstein had asked him to take with his assistants after meetings. “I apologise to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made,” the Journal quoted him as saying.

Bill Gates-Jeffrey Epstein controversy

The documents released by the Justice Department have indicated Gates and Epstein met repeatedly to discuss expanding the Microsoft founder’s philanthropic efforts. In a draft email among the documents released by the Justice Department, Epstein alleged Gates engaged in extramarital affairs, writing that his relationship with Gates ranged from “helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with russian girls, to facilitating his illicit trysts, with married women.”
The meetings came after Epstein was imprisoned for 13 months, ending in 2009, for a conviction on state charges in Florida of soliciting the prostitution involving a minor.

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The tech titan said his relationship with Epstein began in 2011, three years after the financier pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution. Gates said he knew of an “18-month thing” restricting Epstein’s travel but didn’t check his background.

He said his then-wife Melinda expressed concerns about Epstein in 2013, but that he continued the relationship for at least another year. “Knowing what I know now makes it, you know, a hundred times worse in terms of not only his crimes in the past, but now it’s clear there was ongoing bad behavior,” Gates told staff.

The Gates Foundation said Gates addressed the Epstein case and other issues at its scheduled twice-yearly town hall event. “Bill spoke candidly, addressing several questions in detail, and took responsibility for his actions,” it said in a statement to AFP.

(With inputs from AFP)