Global Courant 2023-05-22 00:03:31
Jeffrey Epstein allegedly threatened Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates with details of the tech billionaire’s alleged affair with a Russian bridge player, the Wall Street Journal reported.
“Mr. Gates met with Epstein solely for philanthropic purposes,” a Gates spokeswoman told WSJ. “After Epstein repeatedly failed to lure Mr. Gates out of these matters, Epstein unsuccessfully tried to leverage a past relationship to threaten Mr. Gates.”
Gates met Russian bridge player Mila Antonova in 2010, when she was in her 20s and Gates in her mid-50s, at a bridge tournament where the two played against each other, according to the Journal. Originally from Russia, Antonova moved to the US and started working as a software engineer in Silicon Valley, according to her LinkedIn.
Antonova publicly discussed meeting the tech billionaire in a 2010 video that described her “not beating” Gates, but “tried to kick him with my leg,” according to WSJ. Gates is a well-known lover of the game of bridge and has even competed against fellow billionaire Warren Buffett.
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Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (Justin Tallis – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
After meeting Gates, Antonova tried to start an online venture that would teach people how to play bridge. She began reaching out to potential donors, with Gates confidant Boris Nikolic putting her in touch with Epstein, according to documents reviewed by the outlet.
In November 2013, Antonova and Nikolic reportedly met with Epstein at his New York City townhome to pitch the proposal and try to raise $500,000. Epstein ultimately did not donate to the proposal, dubbed “BridgePlanet,” WSJ reported, citing Antonova.
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“I deeply regret ever meeting Epstein,” Nikolic insisted to the outlet. “His crimes were despicable. I have never seen anything like his illegal behavior. My heart goes out to his victims and their families.”
The following November, Antonova stayed in an apartment provided by Epstein, but “had no contact with him or anyone else while she was there,” she said. By that year, she had decided to become a software engineer and was looking for donors to pay for programming lessons.
“Epstein agreed to pay and he paid directly to the school. Nothing was exchanged. I don’t know why he did that,” she said, the outlet reported. “When I asked, he said something like, he was rich and wanted to help people where he could.”
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell on March 15, 2005 in New York City. (Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Epstein attempted to set up a multibillion-dollar charitable fund with JPMorgan, in part to allegedly help repair his public image following his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitutes, including an underage girl. According to the report, he had to get wealthy donors, including Gates, to pool their money for the fund.
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Gates and Epstein had met a handful of times before Epstein’s death in 2019, which Gates later regretted. In WSJ-reviewed emails, Epstein sent emails to JPMorgan to give the impression that he was an advisor to Gates. The tech billionaire’s spokeswoman told the outlet that Epstein never worked for Gates and misrepresented their relationship with JPMorgan.
March 28, 2017, photo of Jeffrey Epstein provided by the New York State Sex Offender Registry. (AP, file)
The fund stalled and ultimately went nowhere.
“The company didn’t need him as a customer,” a JPMorgan spokesperson told Epstein’s WSJ. ‘The company didn’t need him for introductions. Knowing what we know now, we wish we had never done business with him.”
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In 2017, years after Gates’ alleged relationship with Antonova, Epstein emailed Gates about the bridge player, sources with knowledge of the incident told WSJ. Antonova denied commenting specifically to WSJ about Gates, the outlet noted.
Epstein reportedly asked Gates to pay him back the money used to cover Antonova’s software programming lessons. Gates has not sent any payment, Gates spokeswoman said.
“Mr. Gates had no financial dealings with Epstein,” the spokeswoman said.
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Sources said the cost of the classes was irrelevant to either man, but that the tone of the email indicated that Epstein knew about the alleged affair and could expose Gates.
