Bill Gates spent six months telling Congress, his staff, and the world he had no idea what Jeffrey Epstein really was.
Behind the scenes, something very different was happening.
What he was warned and when just demolished his public position on Epstein.
Gates Foundation Staff Warned Him About Epstein 30 Times
An independent review conducted by law firm WilmerHale confirmed this week what Gates spent years trying to bury: his own employees repeatedly warned him that Jeffrey Epstein was a liability.
Gates ignored them.
The five-month review put the number at roughly 30 meetings between Gates, senior foundation staff, and the convicted sex offender from 2011 to 2014.
Foundation employees raised the risks of associating with Epstein on multiple occasions, citing his 2008 Florida conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
The warnings reached "senior leadership, including Mr. Gates," WilmerHale confirmed.
He kept meeting with Epstein anyway — for three more years.
The WilmerHale Review Gates Foundation Paid For Had One Glaring Blind Spot
The WilmerHale investigation found no evidence of illegal conduct by Gates or the foundation.
Gates and his team were quick to trumpet that conclusion.
What they did not trumpet: the review explicitly excluded Gates' personal communications.
WilmerHale stated in its summary that it "did not have access to Mr. Gates's personal communications and did not review Epstein's interactions with Mr. Gates in a personal capacity or separate legal entities associated with Mr. Gates."
Gates Ventures – his private investment office – was off limits. Personal emails were off limits. The foundation funded the investigation that produced it, and the investigation stopped exactly where Gates' personal life began.
Epstein also used his access to Gates to steer foundation grants.
In 2012, Epstein introduced Gates to the head of the International Peace Institute.
The Gates Foundation awarded the organization a grant the following year.
The IPI's president later resigned in 2020 over his own connections to Epstein.
Gates Told the House Oversight Committee He Had No Idea — His Staff Knew Otherwise
Bill Gates appeared before the House Oversight Committee on June 10, testifying for nearly six hours behind closed doors.
He called meeting Epstein "a grave error in judgment."
His staff had been calling it a reputational liability since 2011.
He did not listen then, and House investigators want to know why.
Epstein had pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008, three years before Gates began meeting with him.
The Florida deal – brokered by then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta – allowed Epstein to avoid federal charges in exchange for a guilty plea on state prostitution charges.
Gates has said he was aware of a criminal conviction that was "sexual in nature" when the meetings began but insists he did not understand the full scope of Epstein's crimes.
That defense requires believing that one of the most sophisticated dealmakers in American history failed to conduct basic due diligence on a man his own employees flagged as radioactive.
Warren Buffett is not buying it.
The 95-year-old Berkshire Hathaway chairman told CNBC in March that he had not spoken to Gates since the Justice Department released the Epstein files.
In July, Buffett made it official – omitting the Gates Foundation from his annual donation for the first time since 2006.
Over two decades, Buffett had directed more than $47 billion in Berkshire Hathaway stock to the foundation.
He called Gates' Epstein association "distasteful" and moved on.
The foundation thanked Buffett for his past generosity and said it remains financially stable.
Its founder, meanwhile, cannot account for why he kept walking into Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan townhouse after his own people told him to stop.
Sources:
- "Bill Gates Ignored Foundation's Warnings About Jeffrey Epstein," The Daily Beast, July 21, 2026.
- "Gates Foundation Epstein Review: 30 Meetings, No Crime Evidence," Planet-Today.com, July 23, 2026.
- "Bill Gates Tells Congress That Meeting Epstein Was a 'Grave Error in Judgment,'" CBS News, June 10, 2026.
- "Warren Buffett Stops Gates Foundation Donations Following Epstein Revelations," Reuters/U.S. News, July 14, 2026.
- "Gates Foundation Cleared in Epstein Audit, But Warren Buffett Ends $47bn Giving Partnership," Eastern Herald, July 23, 2026.
