Melinda Gates Warned Bill About Jeffrey Epstein

In the wake of the news of the divorce between Bill and Melinda Gates, Daily Beast is running a long piece on the relationship between Bill and Jeffrey Epstein, and Melinda being upset about it.

Most interesting it appears that the story is being sourced by people in Melinda's camp. So you have to wonder if she wants this out and why. Is this simply a hell hath no fury moment or is there another reason for the leak?

Here are key excerpts:

Melinda Gates met with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein alongside her husband Bill in New York City and soon after said she was furious at the relationship between the two men, according to people familiar with the situation.

The previously unreported meeting occurred at Epstein’s Upper East Side mansion in September 2013, on the same day the couple accepted the Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award at the Pierre Hotel and were photographed alongside then-Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

The meeting would prove a turning point for Gates’ relationship with Epstein, the people familiar with the matter say, as Melinda told friends after the encounter how uncomfortable she was in the company of the wealthy sex offender and how she wanted nothing to do with him.

Gates’ friendship with Epstein—who for years was accused of molesting scores of underage girls—still haunts Melinda, according to friends of the couple who spoke to The Daily Beast this week in light of the pair’s divorce announcement, which had been weeks in the making...

The ties between Gates and Epstein ran much deeper than the tech mogul first admitted. As The New York Times reported, starting in 2011, Gates met with Epstein on numerous occasions. This was three years after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting an underage girl in Florida; by then, accusations that Epstein exploited girls and young women were widely reported in the press...

As The Times reported, two people close to Gates acted as intermediaries between the two: Boris Nikolic, a biotech investor and former adviser to Gates who was mysteriously named a backup executor in Epstein’s last will and testament; and Melanie Walker, who worked at the Gates foundation and served as a science adviser to Epstein. A person close to Walker told The Daily Beast she did not attend nor help set up any meetings between Gates and Epstein. Nikolic did not return multiple requests for comment...

Indeed, the Times reported Gates visited Epstein multiple times from 2011 to 2013, and that Epstein had tried pitching a new charitable fund to JPMorgan honchos and to the Gates foundation. In 2013, Gates also took a ride on Epstein’s private jet (christened by tabloids the Lolita Express), from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey to Palm Beach, Florida, according to flight records reviewed by the Times. CNBC also reported that Gates rendezvoused with Epstein in New York in 2013...

This person wasn’t surprised that Melinda Gates was put off by Epstein, saying “a lot of people were uncomfortable with Epstein, completely independent of his” sexual misconduct. “He just was an obnoxious guy. He almost made a point of having bad manners, not paying attention at dinner… I could see how anybody, even without suspicions, would not want to be around him.”

Still, Epstein had a “superhuman” ability as a social climber, the one-time colleague of the financier said, adding that the photos displayed in Epstein’s mansion of former President Bill Clinton and Pope John Paul II were “really obnoxious, especially if you’re somebody like Melinda and hanging around with heads of state anyway. Then to have someone do this endless name-dropping…

“When he got up from the table at dinner, he wouldn’t just get up, he’d tell you he had a call with a president of some country.”

Epstein also reportedly had a habit of bragging that he was an unofficial adviser to Bill Gates—a claim the Microsoft founder’s representatives denied. One Times report indicates Epstein claimed to be a tax consultant for the tech magnate.

After his initial meeting with the financier, the billionaire philanthropist told Gates Foundation staff in an email: “His lifestyle is very different and kind of intriguing although it would not work for me.” Asked about this message, Gates’ spokeswoman said he “was referring only to the unique decor” at Epstein's Manhattan mansion and “Epstein’s habit of spontaneously bringing acquaintances in to meet Mr. Gates.”

The full story is here. 

 -RW