Bill Gates Denies Allegations in Epstein Email as ‘Absurd’ and ‘False’

Jeffrey Epstein’s emails claiming to detail ties to Bill Gates emerge in unsealed records, prompting strong denial from the philanthropist’s foundation.

A spokesperson for Bill Gates forcefully denied allegations contained in newly unsealed emails written by Jeffrey Epstein in 2013, calling them “absolutely absurd and completely false.” The emails were among more than 3 million pages of documents related to the disgraced financier that the Department of Justice released on Friday.

The documents include self-authored emails from Epstein that appear to be drafts intended for someone named Boris, who allegedly worked for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The emails suggest Gates had requested medication for a sexually transmitted disease to “surreptitiously” give to his now ex-wife, Melinda French Gates.

Another email claimed that Boris had helped Gates “get drugs” and facilitated “illicit trysts” between the Microsoft founder and “Russian girls” as well as “married women.” The documents provide no evidence to substantiate these claims.

“The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame,” the Gates spokesperson told Business Insider in a statement. The response suggests the foundation views the emails as part of a potential effort by Epstein to damage Gates’ reputation or leverage their limited connection.

It remains unclear whether the emails were ever actually sent to Gates or if the individual named Boris actually existed or worked for the Gates Foundation. The emails appear to be notes Epstein drafted following what he characterized as a dispute.

The revelations come amid ongoing scrutiny of Gates’ past association with Epstein, who died by suicide in a federal jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Gates, once the world’s richest person and now a global philanthropist focused on public health and climate change, has previously acknowledged meeting with Epstein several times.

Gates has consistently maintained that these meetings were solely for philanthropic purposes and has expressed regret about the association. “I had several dinners with him, hoping that what he said about getting billions of philanthropy for global health through contacts that he had might emerge,” Gates said in a 2021 CNN interview. “When it looked like that wasn’t a real thing, that relationship ended.”

The connection between Gates and Epstein has had significant personal consequences. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2021 that Melinda Gates began consulting divorce attorneys in 2019, around the time news of her then-husband’s meetings with Epstein became public knowledge. In a 2022 interview with CBS, Melinda Gates confirmed that her ex-husband’s ties to Epstein were a contributing factor in their decision to end their 27-year marriage.

The Gates divorce, finalized in 2021, resulted in a division of their estimated $130 billion fortune and raised questions about the future direction of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the world’s largest charitable organizations.

The release of these documents comes as part of the ongoing effort to bring transparency to Epstein’s network of connections with wealthy and powerful individuals. Similar document releases have implicated numerous high-profile figures, though many have denied wrongdoing or claimed their relationships with Epstein were professional rather than personal.

For Gates, who has spent the past two decades rebuilding his image from tech mogul to global humanitarian, the resurfaced allegations represent a continuing challenge to his public reputation, despite his foundation’s categorical denial of the claims contained in Epstein’s emails.