Seattle: Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates has apologised over his ties with child sex-offender Jeffery Epstein and admitted to affairs with two Russian women.
“I apologise to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made,” he said, Republic TV reported, citing a The Wall Street Journal report.
Gates also acknowledged that he had two affairs with Russian women that Epstein later discovered, but that they did not involve Epstein’s victims, the report said.
“I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit,” Gates told the employees at Gates Foundation.
He said that his photographs released as part of the Epstein files were taken after the sex offender requested pictures with his assistants following their meetings.
“It was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein and bring Gates Foundation executives into meetings with the sex offender,” he said.
While admitting that he had not thoroughly investigated Epstein’s background, Gates said he knew about an “18-month thing” that had restricted Epstein’s travel. Even after his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, raised concerns in 2013, he kept meeting with Epstein, Gates admitted.
“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 behavior,” Gates told his staff.
The Epstein file documents that acknowledge Gates ties with the sex-offender indicate that the two kept meeting after Epstein’s prison term to discuss the Microsoft co-founder’s philanthropic efforts.
Documents released by the US Department of Justice also included pictures of Gates posing with women whose faces are redacted. The Microsoft co-founder had previously said the relationship with Epstein was confined to philanthropy-related discussions.
The tech billionaire pulled out last-minute from attending India’s AI Impact Summit in New Delhi earlier this month.
