Talks centered on public health fund, peace institute grant
Bill Gates and the staff of his charitable foundation met with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein approximately 30 times between 2011 and 2014 even as employees expressed concerns about the reputational risk of working with him, an external review found Tuesday.
The roughly 30 meetings included several visits to Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse and one meeting on the Gates Foundation campus, according to the review by law firm WilmerHale. The foundation released a three-page summary of the report Tuesday and did not say whether it would release the full version.
The conversations were focused on a public health fund that never materialized and a grant to the International Peace Institute, which was run by an associate of Epstein, the review found. Foundation employees had expressed concerns about the reputational risks of working with Epstein, according to the external review’s findings.
The review found no evidence the foundation paid Epstein or did anything illegal, the summary said.
Gates, who chairs the Gates Foundation, has not been accused in connection with Epstein’s crimes and has repeatedly denied any knowledge of Epstein’s abuse of girls. He told a congressional committee last month that he made a “grave error in judgment” by meeting with the disgraced financier.
MSI has covered the Gates Foundation’s review of its Epstein ties in previous articles.