The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) first broke the news of this blackmail attempt in a May 21 article. It outlined that Gates met Mila Antonova "around 2010, when she was in her 20s." The financier met Antonova in 2013 and later paid for her to attend software coding school.
Epstein then emailed Gates in 2017, asking for reimbursement for the cost of the course the bridge player took. The email came after the convicted sex offender tried and failed to convince the tech mogul to participate in a charitable fund. Epstein established the said charitable fund with JPMorgan Chase, which is now in hot water for its deals with the financier.
According to people who have seen the email, Epstein threatened to reveal Gates' affair with Antonova if the Microsoft co-founder didn't keep up an association with him. The email had also been sent "years after the relationship had ended," the WSJ pointed out.
Antonova herself told the WSJ that she had no idea about who Epstein was. "I had no idea that he was a criminal or had any ulterior motive. I just thought he was a successful businessman and wanted to help," she said.
The bridge player turned software engineer ultimately expressed her disgust toward Epstein and his misdeeds. However, she declined to comment on Gates – a fellow devotee of the card game. A video from 2010 disclosed that Antonova met the tech mogul at a bridge tournament and even played against him.
She sought funds for an endeavor to teach people how to play bridge, and Gates associate Boris Nikolic introduced her to the financier. Both Nikolic and Antonova visited Epstein in his home back in November 2013, where she pitched the project. The bridge player wrote an email to Epstein to thank him for the meeting, and Antonova later said he did not invest in the project.
Blackmail stems from Gates' refusal to bankroll fund
"The new details about Epstein and Gates reveal a layer of complexity, and shed new light on how Epstein operated," the WSJ wrote.
"In the years between his 2008 conviction and death [in August 2019], Epstein packed his days meeting with politicians, businessmen, academics and celebrities. He provided favors and sought to use the connections for his own purposes. When the relationships soured, he could turn against people."
Epstein had been trying to set up a charitable fund with JPMorgan that would potentially pool money from some of the world's wealthiest people at the time of his email to Gates. The disgraced financier proposed that JPMorgan set up the fund with a minimum $100 million contribution per individual, and that he be paid millions of dollars in fees. Apparently, Epstein saw the effort – which hinged on Gates' support – as a way to rehabilitate his tarnished reputation.
"In essence, this [fund] will allow Bill to have access to higher quality people, investment, allocation [and] governance without upsetting either his marriage of the [sensitivities] of the current [Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation] employees," he wrote in an August 2011 email to JPMorgan executives Jes Staley and Mary Erdoes.
The charitable fund never got off the ground. Erdoes still remains at JPMorgan, where she serves as the CEO of the bank's asset and wealth management division. Staley left JPMorgan in 2013 to join Barclays, but resigned in November 2021 over his links to Epstein. (Related: New emails reveal deep ties between Jeffrey Epstein and former CEO of JPMorgan, Barclays.)
"The firm didn't need him as a client … and for introductions," a JPMorgan spokesman said of the late financier. "Knowing what we know today, we wish we had never done business with him."
Epstein.news has more stories about the late convicted sex offender and financier.
Watch this clip of National Legal and Policy Center Chairman Peter Flaherty getting arrested after mentioning the ties between Gates, Epstein and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett.
This video is from the Cynthia's Pursuit of Truth channel on Brighteon.com.
More related stories:
'Furious' Melinda Gates warned Bill over Jeffrey Epstein escapades: Report.
The Bill Gates and Jeffrey Epstein connection goes deeper, as both shared interests in eugenics.
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