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Jeffrey
Epstein allegedly tried to extort Bill Gates over extramarital affair
Convicted
sexual offender reportedly threatened to expose Gates’s relationship with
Russian bridge player Mila Antonova
Maya Yang
Sun 21
May 2023 21.08 BST
The
convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein appeared to threaten Bill Gates and
tried to blackmail the multi-billionaire over his extramarital affair with a
Russian bridge player, according to a new report published by the Wall Street
Journal.
Speaking
to the Journal, sources familiar with the matter said that after Epstein found
out about the Microsoft co-founder’s affair with Russian bridge player Mila
Antonova, he threatened Gates into reimbursing him for tuition costs that
Epstein had initially covered for Antonova to attend software coding school.
Epstein’s
threat to Gates came in the form of an email he sent in 2017 after he failed to
convince Gates to join a multibillion-dollar charity fund he attempted to set
up, according to the sources.
Gates met
Antonova in about 2010, when she was in her 20s, and went on to play bridge
with her. In a 2010 YouTube video, Antonova recounted a tournament that she
played with Gates, saying: “I didn’t beat him but I tried to kick him with my
leg.”
According
to documents reviewed by the Journal, Antonova wanted to establish an online
bridge tutorial business and was attempting to secure funds. Through Boris
Nikolic, a close Gates adviser, Antonova was introduced to Epstein to help her
raise funds for her initiative, which sought to “promote bridge by creating
quality tutorials for beginners and advanced players”, the Journal reported.
Antonova
and Nikolic met Epstein at his townhouse in November 2013 in New York City,
where she presented her fundraising proposals to him and sought half a million
dollars, according to the Journal. Antonova told the outlet that Epstein
ultimately did not invest in the initiative.
Nevertheless,
Antonova went on to stay at an apartment in New York a year later that Epstein
provided her. “I didn’t interact with him or with anyone else while there,” she
said.
Epstein
at one point paid for Antonova to attend software coding school, the Journal
reported.
“Epstein
agreed to pay, and he paid directly to the school,” she told the outlet.
“Nothing was exchanged. I don’t know why he did that.
“When I
asked, he said something like he was wealthy and wanted to help people when he
could.”
During
the time Antonova was looking to set up her initiative, Epstein was also trying
to set up his own fund. According to documents reviewed by the Journal, Epstein
was attempting to establish his charitable fund with JP Morgan, which would
require ultra-wealthy individuals to make a minimum $100m contribution and pay
him millions of dollars in fees.
The fund
was supposed to be a way for Epstein to rebuild his reputation after he was
forced to register as a sex offender and had pleaded guilty in 2008 to
soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution, according to sources that
spoke to the Journal.
Documents
reviewed by the outlet showed that Epstein’s fund was contingent upon obtaining
support from Gates.
In emails
sent to JP Morgan executives, Epstein tried to come off as a close adviser to
Gates, despite not including the Microsoft co-founder in the emails, which the
Journal reviewed.
“In
essence, this [fund] will allow Bill to have access to higher quality people,
investment, allocation, governance without upsetting either his marriage or the
sensitvities [sic] of the current foundation employees,” Epstein wrote in an
email in August 2011.
He
followed up the next day, writing: “Bill is terribly frustrated. He [would]
like to boost some of the things that are working without taking away from
thoses [sic] that are not.”
Two
months later, Epstein sent another email to JP Morgan executives after the
company prepared a presentation on the project, writing, “the presentation, is
not tailored to [Bill]. He is the only person, the only one, that counts.”
Speaking
to the Journal, a JP Morgan spokesperson said: “The firm didn’t need him for
introductions. Knowing what we know today, we wish we had never done business
with him.”
Similarly,
the Journal reported that a Gates spokesperson “has said Epstein never worked
for Gates and misrepresented their ties in communications with JP Morgan and
others”.
In 2017,
Epstein emailed Gates about Antonova after Gates’s extramarital affair ended,
people familiar with the matter told the Journal. In the email, Epstein asked
Gates to reimburse him for Antonova’s coding school costs.
“The tone
of the message was that Epstein knew about the affair and could expose it, the
people said,” the Journal reported, adding that a Gates spokesperson said that
the Microsoft founder “had no financial dealings with Epstein”.
Two years later, in 2019, federal prosecutors charged Epstein with sex trafficking a minor and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. Epstein denied the charges and was refused bail. He died months later in custody in an apparent suicide
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