Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has apologised to employees at the Gates Foundation over his past association with late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, calling it a huge mistake.
Speaking during a recent town hall meeting with foundation staff, Gates acknowledged that spending time with Epstein and involving foundation executives in meetings with him was a blunder.
"It was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein. I apologise to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made," he told employees, taking responsibility for the fallout, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
"It definitely is the opposite of the values of the Foundation and the goals of the Foundation,” he said. "And our work is very reputation-sensitive. I mean, people can choose to work with us or not work with us," he added.
The latest tranche of documents released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) last week showed a draft email in which Epstein wrote some unverified claims about Gates.
In the draft, Epstein alleged that his relationship with Bill Gates included helping him obtain drugs "in order to deal with consequences of sex with Russian girls, to facilitating his illicit trysts with married women."
Gates said that photographs showing him standing with women whose faces have been redacted were taken at Epstein's request after meetings. According to Gates, the women in those images were Epstein's assistants, and they posed for photographs following discussions. "I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit," Gates told the staff.
He also clarified that he never spent time with Epstein's victims or with the women who were part of the abuse allegations surrounding the disgraced financier. "To be clear, I never spent any time with victims, the women around him," he said.
Gates told staff that he began meeting Epstein in 2011 and was aware of his legal trouble that restricted his travel, but admitted that he did not conduct a thorough background check at the time.
He told employees that he continued meeting Epstein until 2014 and travelled with him on at least one private jet flight, but never stayed overnight at any of his properties and never visited his private island.
Gates also acknowledged that his former wife had been wary of Epstein early on. "To give her credit, she was always kind of skeptical about the Epstein thing," Gates said. "Knowing what I know now makes it, you know, a hundred times worse in terms of not only his crimes in the past, but now it's clear there was ongoing bad behaviour," he added.
According to Gates, the presence of other well-known and influential individuals at meetings with Epstein made the situation appear more acceptable at the time. He admitted that seeing respected figures interact with Epstein made it feel "normalised."
Earlier, in an interview with 9News Australia, Gates said, "Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologise."
