A report published by the Wall Street Journal revealed that Jeffrey Epstein – who was accused of sex crimes that shook the world and died in prison – had previously indirectly threatened Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to reveal his relationship with a young Russian woman named Mila Antonova if he refused to "cooperate" with him in a "charity project."
According to the newspaper, Epstein was seeking to establish a charitable fund under the supervision of a bank, and with the contribution of a number of billionaires, and met Gates several times and the founder of Microsoft recognized them, stressing that they were meetings discussing charitable projects only.
The Wall Street Journal said documents showed that Epstein proposed that each member contribute $100 million to that fund and was keen to include Gates, trying to convince the bank that he was close to the famous billionaire founder of Microsoft.
One of Epstein's main goals of the project was to re-burnish his reputation after his sex scandals tarnished him, where he was convicted in 2006 of sexual crimes against underage girls, admitted to those charges in 2008, and served a prison sentence in Florida.
He was arrested again in 2019 after several women charged him with sexual crimes and exploitation in prostitution when they were minors, along with prominent international figures, and later died in prison, in what was described as a "suicide".
Bill and Antonova
The newspaper reported that Bill Gates had met Mila Antonova in 2010 when she was in her twenties, while Epstein met her later in 2013, and helped her study computer programming, and spent a period in a house in his ownership in New York, and said that when she asked him why he does it for her he replied that he wanted to help for nothing only.
The Wall Street Journal quoted Antonova as saying that she did not know anything about the nature of Epstein's work, explaining that she believed that he was just a successful businessman, whom she met through a friend because she was then looking for a financier for her own project about "teaching bridge" (card game) online, estimated to cost about $ 500,<>.
She also said she met Bill Gates during a competition in bridge, which Gates has long said is one of his favorite hobbies he learned from his parents.
But interestingly, the Wall Street Journal confirms, Jeffrey Epstein contacted Bill Gates in 2017 and talked to him about Mila Antonova – years after their relationship ended – and demanded that he be compensated for the costs of the coding school that he had paid for the Russian girl.
People familiar with the dossier said the amount was not important to both men, but the tone of the letter makes clear that Epstein was aware of Bale and Antonova's relationship and could have exposed it.
A spokeswoman for Gates confirmed that he did not pay the amount.
The charity fund Epstein was seeking to create never saw the light of day, while people close to Gates denied any financial relationship between him and Epstein.