Jeffrey Epstein blackmailed Bill Gates over an affair with a young Russian woman

Notorious billionaire
Because of an affair with a young Russian woman: Jeffrey Epstein blackmailed Bill Gates

Bill Gates founded Microsoft – and became one of the richest people in the world

© Evan Vucci/AP/dpa

Rumors have been swirling about Bill Gates’ relationship with Jeffrey Epstein for years. Now it comes out: Gates was apparently blackmailed by the convicted sex offender.

It’s a name that many rich and powerful would like to eradicate from their past. At least since billionaire Jeffrey Epstein was accused of running a ring for the sexual exploitation of underage women, countless politicians, businessmen and celebrities have regretted being associated with the man. One of them is Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Now it has become known: Epstein had tried to blackmail Gates.

This emerges from a report by the “Wall Street Journal” (WSJ). Gates, who is now divorced from his longtime wife Melinda, reportedly met young Russian Mila Antonova in 2010. The young woman was in her twenties at the time, and Gates met her at a bridge tournament. Both shared the passion for the card game. Although he was married to his wife until 2021, Gates is said to have started an affair with her. And Epstein apparently wanted to take advantage of that.

Confirmed blackmail

“Epstein tried unsuccessfully to use a former relationship to threaten Mr. Gates,” a spokeswoman for the Microsoft founder confirmed to the newspaper. Accordingly, Epstein tried several times to involve Gates in business. When that didn’t work, he tried blackmail.

It has long been documented that the men knew each other. Gates had once flown from New Jersey to Florida as a passenger on Epstein’s private jet, and the two had met several times, including at Epstein’s New York residence and in France. Gates has also confirmed the meetings in the past. “I’ve had several dinners with him,” he said while tuning in to Anderson Cooper’s CNN show. He said he wanted to discuss opportunities to work with Epstein on his own charity efforts. “I was concerned with the billions in donations for health programs that might have been possible through his contacts. When it turned out that that wasn’t going to happen, our relationship ended again,” Gates said contritely. In retrospect, the meetings were “a big mistake” (you can find out more about Gates’ statements in this text).

million plans

Epstein seemed to have other ideas. His attempts to persuade the bank JPMorgan to set up a multi-billion dollar donation fund under his leadership are documented in numerous e-mails. His most important argument: Bill Gates is also interested. It would have been a gigantic deal for Epstein. According to his plan, each major donor should contribute at least $100 million. He himself would have made millions with the planned fees.

Epstein claimed in the emails to be a close advisor to Gates. However, it is striking that Gates himself does not take part in any of the documented e-mail processes. In the end it didn’t come to that. “We didn’t need him as a client or as a contact. With today’s knowledge, we should never have done business with him,” a bank spokesman told the “WSJ”.

leverage

That Epstein could even try to push Gates in this direction was due to the joint contact with Antonova. She had tried to develop a service to help people learn bridge. A close adviser to Gates named Boris Nikolic put her in touch with Epstein because he thought he was a potential investor. But the investment did not materialize. However, the Russian kept in touch. When she later looked for a financier to pay for her studies, she also approached Epstein – and he agreed. “He just paid for my school,” she says. “I never did anything for it. I don’t know why he did it.” He told her that he liked helping people.

What he was up to exactly came to light during the blackmail attempt. In 2017, Epstein suddenly contacted Gates. And asked him to transfer his former playmate’s tuition fees to him. Since the sum would not have been significant for either of the two billionaires, he was probably concerned with one thing above all: he wanted to let Gates know that he knew about the affair. But Gates didn’t respond. Revenge came later. Completely out of nowhere, shortly before his death, Epstein had declared Nikolic one of his wealth managers. He was surprised himself – and rejected the option. He has no idea how it came about, he told the WSJ. “I’ve come to the conclusion that this is probably a revenge action against Bill Gates.”

Source:“Wall Street Journal”

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