Explained: the links between Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Gates

Gates’ spokesperson disputed the description of the pair’s relationship, telling the site: “Any claim that Gates spoke of his marriage or Melinda in a disparaging manner is false. Bill never received or solicited personal advice of any kind from Epstein – on marriage or anything else. Bill never complained about Melinda or his marriage to Epstein.”

Common friend

According to Rolling Stone, a neuroscientist described as a “protege” of the late Epstein was a key figure in the relationship between the billionaire paedophile and Gates.

Melanie S. Walker, a former adviser to the Microsoft founder at his charitable foundation, reportedly “talked up Epstein to Gates” having first been employed by the financier as his “science adviser”.

Sources told the magazine that Walker joined Epstein’s inner circle after he spotted her in the dining room of the Plaza Hotel shortly after she finished her undergraduate studies at the University of Texas in 1992. 

“Epstein approached [Walker] because… he thought she was attractive,” a source told the magazine. Alongside him was Donald Trump, the owner of the Plaza Hotel at the time, “who was busy shaking hands with people in the room”.

She was also “close friends” with Prince Andrew, the magazine said, and “talked highly about Epstein” during her time working for the Gates’ charitable foundation. A source said she “felt deep gratitude toward Epstein” for his “advice” and the job as his science adviser.

It is thought that Walker put Epstein forward when Gates was planning his Giving Pledge in 2010, a charitable commitment by the world’s richest individuals to give away the majority of their wealth.

‘An open secret’

Bill and Melinda’s billion-dollar divorce could open the floodgates to a torrent of allegations of infidelity and non-disclosure agreements used to protect the Microsoft founder’s public image, former employees have claimed.

“There have been whispers for years” about Gates’s “inappropriate extramarital relationships”, Vanity Fair reported, adding that “for the people who worked for him”, his “behaviour was something of an open secret”. 

One former employee told the magazine that Gates would often leave the Microsoft headquarters just hours after arriving, saying: “We all assumed that it was when he was with women. I knew there were many off-site meetings that were not on his calendar.”

Others told Vanity Fair that allegations against Gates have been “largely suppressed by Gates’s liberal use of nondisclosure agreements, ostensibly to keep more damning details under wraps”.

In early July, Bill admitted during an “off-the-record” QA session that the end of his marriage to Melinda was his fault, sources claimed. 

An attendee of a “summer camp for billionaires” hosted by law firm Allen Overy told The New York Post that he “might have been on the verge of tears” as he “fessed up to messing up” and “basically referred to the fact that it [the divorce] was his fault”.

Responding to a question by CNBC host Becky Quick following a talk on climate change, Bill did not use the word “affair” while discussing the ongoing divorce proceedings, the source added. A second attendee told the paper his answer was “very moving”.

Sources in the room said Quick did not raise his links to the late-billionare paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. A third attendee told the paper he appeared “agitated” during the appearance, adding: “Bill Gates was pretty much a total asshole.”

Article source: https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/world-news/us/952773/links-between-bill-gates-jeffrey-epstein-examined