A billionaire’s famed philanthropy allegedly did not extend to his extramarital affairs.
Bill Gates is facing intense scrutiny for his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein following a tranche of files released by the Department of Justice on Jan. 30. In one 2017 email, Epstein alleged that Gates left his former Russian mistress “broke” and sleeping on a friend’s couch—and that if her perilous financial situation were made public, it would have bumped Donald Trump off the front pages.
Gates, 70—who is worth roughly $104 billion, making him one of the 20 richest people in the world—has been one of the most high-profile casualties of the ongoing release of the Epstein files.
In an email, sent from Epstein’s personal Gmail account to Gates’ advisor Boris Nikolic concerning the Microsoft founder, Epstein wrote in July 2017 that Gates’ “former bridge girl”—who appears to be Mila Antonova, a bridge player nearly 30 years Gates’ junior—was “broke” and “had little money.”
Epstein claimed she “was living on a friend’s couch,” and “really needed money,” before adding: “I sent her some.”
In the typo-ridden email, the convicted child sex offender then mocked Nikolic’s “friend bill” as “nuts,” saying Gates’ “former girl…cant afford air con, , cant affrod (sic) to travel to bridge.”
Epstein said, “The richest man in the world is so cheap , his former bridge girl and toy , lives on a friends sofa,” adding: “That story would take trump off the front pages.”
At the time Epstein’s email was sent, Trump was engulfed in the furor over the Trump Tower Russia meeting, after Donald Trump Jr. released emails showing he had welcomed “very high-level and sensitive information” from a Kremlin-linked lawyer about Hillary Clinton.
The episode dominated cable news and front pages while Robert Mueller examined whether the encounter broke campaign-finance or conspiracy laws, though prosecutors ultimately brought no charges over the meeting.
Epstein’s email appears to refer to Antonova, who, according to a May 2023 Wall Street Journal report, had an affair with Gates around 2010, when she was in her twenties. Per the Journal, Epstein later met Antonova in 2013 after Nikolic introduced them and agreed to pay for her software coding course.
Four years later, in 2017, Epstein emailed Gates demanding reimbursement, in a move widely interpreted as an attempt to gain leverage over one of the world’s richest men, according to the Journal. The Daily Telegraph later reported in 2023 that Antonova was an associate of the “notorious” Kremlin spy Anna Chapman.
Gates has said his meetings with Epstein were solely about philanthropy and that they were “a huge mistake.” A spokesperson has insisted that Epstein’s attempts to portray himself as a Gates adviser were lies and that “Mr. Gates had no financial dealings with Epstein,” including over Antonova’s tuition.
“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 Gates told the Daily Beast.
Antonova has previously told the Journal she did not know who Epstein was when they met and believed he was simply a rich businessman offering to help her bridge-teaching startup. She said he later let her stay briefly in a New York apartment, but that they barely interacted, and that she is now “disgusted” by what she has learned about him.
Nikolic, a physician-investor who served as Gates’ chief science adviser between 2009 and 2014, has said he first met Epstein in his official capacity for Gates, now regrets the contact, and denies having business ties to the pedophile financier.
The Antonova memo is part of a flood of material released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which forced the Justice Department to dump millions of pages of Epstein-related documents, including emails, photos, and videos.
Lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee have also posted their own cache of Epstein communications, while blasting the DOJ for withholding large portions of the files.
It is the latest lurid allegation to hit Gates from the files. On Monday, the Daily Beast reported on 2013 draft emails in which Epstein appeared to script a message for Nikolic, accusing Gates of catching a sexually transmitted infection after “sex with Russian girls” and plotting to slip his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, antibiotics without her knowledge.
Gates’ spokesperson called the claims “absolutely absurd and completely false.” French Gates later said the document drop brought back “very, very painful” memories of their marriage.
Gates has stressed in multiple interviews that he never visited Epstein’s island, never met women through him, and that the relationship consisted of a handful of dinners from 2011 onward that he now regrets.
In an interview with Australia’s 9 News that aired on Wednesday, Gates was pressed directly about his links to the convicted sex offender. He said: “The focus was always, he knew a lot of very rich people, and he was saying, he could get them to give money to global health.
“You know, in retrospect, that was a dead end, and I’ve said many times, but I’ll say it again: I was foolish to spend time with him. I was one of many people who regret ever knowing him.”
Epstein, who died in a New York jail in 2019 aged 66 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, spent his final years trying to monetize his connections to billionaires and world leaders—and, as this latest email shows, often privately taunting them.
The Daily Beast has attempted to contact Antonova for comment.
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