Bill Gates foundation met with Jeffrey Epstein about 30 times, external review finds

Staff ‘raised on multiple occasions’ risks of tech mogul’s philanthropic body associating with disgraced financier A new external review commissioned by the Gates Foundation has found that there were “roughly 30 meetings” between Jeffrey Epstein and foundation leaders and staff – including Bill Gates – between 2011 and 2014, even as foundation staff “raised on multiple occasions the risks of associating with Epstein because of his prior conviction”. The Gates foundation commissioned the review in March, following the justice department’s release earlier this year of millions of documents related to Epstein. The files included numerous references to Gates, several photographs of him, and records showing that he met with Epstein on multiple occasions, which prompted renewed scrutiny of Gates’s past ties to the disgraced financier. The foundation also said earlier this year that it was aware of emails in the Epstein files “between Jeffrey Epstein and Gates Foundation staff”. The foundation said, at the time, that it “regrets having any employees interact with Epstein in any way” and retained the law firm WilmerHale to conduct a review of the foundation’s past engagements with Epstein.