Billionaire Bill Gates’ links to the disgraced pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein are to be examined by his own charitable foundation, it has announced.
The Seattle-based Gates Foundation has been reeling from Epstein-related fallout since a January dump of files by the U.S. Department of Justice exposed extensive contact between the late sex offender and the Microsoft co-founder, who has given more than $60 billion towards global health projects.
The most incendiary material was a batch of draft emails from 2013 in which Epstein appeared to boast about arranging sexual encounters for Gates, now 70, and procuring him drugs to conceal a sexually transmitted disease from his then-wife Melinda—allegations Gates has strongly denied.
On Tuesday, the foundation revealed that it had begun an “external review” sometime “early this year.” It is expected to return its findings before the fall.
The foundation said in a statement to Reuters: “Early this year, Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman commissioned an external review to assess past foundation engagement with Epstein, and our current policies for vetting and developing new philanthropic partnerships.
“That review is underway, and we expect the board and management will receive an update this summer."
In a memo sent to staff in March, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, Suzman said that the organization faced a challenging moment that demanded “tough actions now.”
The Journal also reported that the foundation plans to axe up to 500 positions—around 20 percent of its global workforce—by 2030.
The Daily Beast asked the Gates Foundation if it continued to have faith in Bill Gates as its chair. A spokesperson did not address the question in its response, instead telling the Daily Beast that neither announcement was new.
“These were included in an update from CEO Mark Suzman to all foundation employees on a range of topics related to foundation operations,” they said.
The DOJ trove also contained photographs of Gates standing alongside Epstein, plus images of the billionaire with women whose identities had been blurred from the frame. Gates has maintained his dealings with the late pedophile never strayed beyond philanthropy and that meeting him in the first place was a mistake—and has insisted he never met any of Epstein’s abuse victims.
At an internal town hall in February, Gates addressed employees about the scandal and, according to the Wall Street Journal, told them: “I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit.”
He also reportedly admitted having affairs with two Russian women that Epstein had learned of, though he insisted neither involved any of the late financier’s victims.
His staff is not the only audience he must soon face.
As the Daily Beast reported early last month, Gates is being hauled in for a closed-door transcribed interview before the House Oversight Committee on June 10 as part of its sweeping probe into Epstein’s network of powerful associates. He has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing.
Gates set up the foundation—the biggest private foundation backing global health—in 2000 with then-wife Melinda French Gates, who has cited his ties to Epstein as a factor in their divorce. He remains its chair.
