Jeffrey Epstein, a person found guilty of sex trafficking, seemed to threaten Bill Gates while attempting to extort the billionaire due to his adulterous relationship with a Russian bridge player, as revealed by a fresh report from the Wall Street Journal.
Sources familiar with the situation told the Journal that upon learning about the relationship between the Microsoft founder and Russian bridge player Mila Antonova, Epstein threatened to make Gates repay him for Antonova’s coding school expenses.
The Wall Street Journal reported on financial interactions between Noam Chomsky and the president of Bard College and Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein issued his threat to Gates via an email in 2017, after failing to persuade Gates to participate in a multi-billion dollar charity fund that Epstein was trying to establish, according to these sources.
Around 2010, Gates met Antonova, who was in her 20s at the time, and played bridge with her.
In a YouTube video from 2010, Antonova described a tournament where she played against Gates, stating, “I didn’t beat him but I tried to kick him with my leg.”
Based on documents the Journal examined, Antonova intended to start an online bridge tutorial business and was seeking funding.
Antonova met Epstein through Boris Nikolic, a close adviser to Gates, to assist her in raising money for her project that aimed to “promote bridge by creating quality tutorials for beginners and advanced players,” the Journal noted.
Antonova and Nikolic visited Epstein at his townhouse in New York City in November 2013, where she presented her fundraising ideas to him and asked for half a million dollars, but Epstein chose not to invest in her project.
However, Antonova spent time in a New York apartment provided by Epstein a year later. “I didn’t interact with him or with anyone else while there,” she stated.
The Journal reported that Epstein, at one point, funded Antonova’s attendance at a software coding school.
“Epstein agreed to pay, and he paid directly to the school,” she informed the media 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.”
While Antonova was trying to launch her project, Epstein was also working on establishing his own fund.
According to documents the Journal reviewed, Epstein was attempting to create a charitable fund with JP Morgan that would require ultra-rich individuals to make at least a $100m donation and pay him millions in fees.
The aim of the fund was to help Epstein restore his reputation following his mandatory registration as a sex offender and his 2008 guilty plea for solicitation and procurement of a minor for prostitution, according to sources the Journal spoke to.
Documents that the media outlet reviewed revealed that the success of Epstein’s fund hinged on gaining Gates’ support.
Epstein tried to portray himself as a close adviser to Gates in emails to JP Morgan executives, although Gates was not included in these emails, the Journal reported.
“This [fund] will essentially provide Bill access to superior quality individuals, investment, allocation, governance without unsettling his marital life or the sensitivities of the current foundation employees,” Epstein composed in an email in August 2011.
He responded the following day, writing: “Bill is terribly frustrated. He [would] like to amplify aspects that are functioning without detracting from those that are not.”
In another email to JP Morgan executives two months later, after the company had prepared a presentation on the project, Epstein wrote, “the presentation, is not tailored to [Bill]. He is the only person, the only one, that counts.”
In a conversation with the Journal, a representative from JP Morgan stated: “The firm didn’t need him for introductions. Knowing what we know today, we wish we had never done business with him.”
In a similar vein, it was reported by the Journal that a spokesperson for Gates “has said Epstein never worked for Gates and misrepresented their ties in communications with JP Morgan and others”.
After the conclusion of Gates’s extramarital relationship in 2017, sources knowledgeable about the situation disclosed to the Journal that Epstein sent Gates an email regarding Antonova.
The email contained a request for Gates to cover the expenses for Antonova’s programming education.
“The tone of the message was that Epstein knew about the affair and could expose it, the people said,” the Journal reported, with the addition that a representative for Gates asserted the Microsoft co-founder “had no financial dealings with Epstein”.
Fast forward to 2019, two years after, Epstein faced federal charges for sexually exploiting a minor and for conspiring to commit the same crime.
Epstein protested against the allegations, but his request for bail was rejected. After a few months in detention, he apparently committed suicide.
