Disgraced financier, Jeffrey Epstein tried to arm-twist tech billionaire, Bill Gates into supporting his philanthropic venture by threatening to expose Gates’ alleged affair with a Russian bridge player.
Epstein, who was convicted of soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution in 2018, died by suicide in a New York prison in 2019.
In a report on Sunday, the Wall Street Journal said Epstein found out about Gates’ alleged affair with Russian card star Mila Antonova and tried to exploit the knowledge to threaten the Microsoft co-founder.
Gates and Antonova met in 2010 during a card tournament, with the former emerging victorious when they were pitched against each other.
Antonova had admitted in a 2010 video that she was on friendly terms with Gates, and it was rumored that the duo dated briefly during that period.
The alleged affair reportedly happened when Gates was still married to his now ex-wife Melinda French Gates.
The WSJ report stated that Antonova had approached Epstein in 2013 while looking for financial backers for a bridge academy.
She was said to have been pointed in the financier’s direction by top Gates adviser, Boris Nikolic.
Although Epstein did not agree to support the venture, he later paid for her to attend software coding school.
“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,” Antonova told the newspaper.
The report stated that in a 2017 email, Epstein asked Gates to reimburse him for the cost of investing in Antonova’s coding education.
Gates did not reimburse Epstein, according to WSJ, and, shortly after Epstein’s conviction, had denied ever having any financial dealings with the convict.
“Mr. Gates met with Epstein solely for philanthropic purposes. Having failed repeatedly to draw Mr. Gates beyond these matters, Epstein tried unsuccessfully to leverage a past relationship to threaten Mr. Gates,” a spokesperson for the Microsoft co-founder said.