Each summer, like clockwork, Warren Buffett donates millions of shares of his valuable Berkshire Hathaway stock to five foundations.
This summer? Only four.
On Tuesday, Mr. Buffett — one of the world’s wealthiest people and biggest philanthropists — declined to give billions of dollars to the Gates Foundation, as was his habit for two decades. His decision appears to be the latest reverberation of the fallout from the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Mr. Epstein, the disgraced financier, maintained extensive relations with Bill Gates, a longtime friend of Mr. Buffett’s and a co-trustee of the Gates Foundation.
Mr. Buffett’s annual philanthropy announcement disclosed that he was donating shares only to four foundations affiliated with his late wife and his three adult children. He made no mention of the Gates Foundation in the news release, nor of the Epstein files.
Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Mr. Buffett was waiting on the results of an outside investigation launched by the Gates Foundation into its ties to Mr. Epstein before making his typical disbursement.
The Epstein files released by the Justice Department revealed an extensive relationship between Mr. Epstein and Mr. Gates, including tawdry allegations from Mr. Epstein about Mr. Gates’s love life. Mr. Gates told Congress last month that Mr. Epstein sought to exploit Mr. Gates’s extramarital affairs and use them against him.
Back in 2006, Mr. Buffett first began making annual gifts to select foundations. “I am irrevocably committing to make annual gifts of Berkshire Hathaway ‘B’ shares throughout my lifetime for the benefit,” of the foundation, he wrote.
Mr. Buffett served as a trustee of the Gates Foundation before resigning in 2021, when Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates were going through a divorce that was driven in part by the Epstein revelations. The Berkshire Hathaway founder said in March that he had not spoken to Mr. Gates “since the whole thing” relating to the Epstein files “was unveiled.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Buffett noted that he was eager to see his wealth get to his preferred foundations. “Of course, mortality is unpredictable, but my remaining shares will be donated to the four foundations one way or the other by Dec. 31, 2034,” he said in the release.
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