Jeffrey Epstein is exactly who we all think that he is. He was the man in charge of this worldwide trafficking scheme and used it to hold onto power by blackmailing those in high offices. Epstein reportedly even threatened Bill Gates using his extramarital affair with a Russian bridge player, Mila Antonova, whom Gates met in 2010.

“In 2017, Epstein emailed Gates and asked to be reimbursed for the cost of the course, according to the people familiar with the matter,” the Wall Street Journal reported. “The email came after the convicted sex offender had struggled and failed to convince Gates to participate in a multibillion-dollar charitable fund that Epstein tried to establish with JPMorgan Chase.”

The news outlet reported that Epstein supposedly threatened to reveal Gates’ association with Antonova unless Gates stayed in touch with Epstein.

A representative for Gates clarified that Gates had only met with Epstein for charitable reasons. Despite Epstein’s attempts to involve Gates in other matters, he ultimately resorted to using a previous relationship to intimidate Gates, which was unsuccessful.

Antonova declined to comment on the Gates sex scandal. However, she clarified that she was unaware of who Jeffrey Epstein was when they initially met.

“I had no idea that he was a criminal or had any ulterior motive,” the Russian bridge player said of Epstein. “I just thought he was a successful businessman and wanted to help. I am disgusted with Epstein and what he did.”

There are rumors that Antonova met with Epstein in November 2013 at Epstein’s townhouse. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss Antonova’s proposal to promote the game of bridge. While Epstein did not support the project, he did pay for Antonova’s education.

“Epstein agreed to pay and he paid directly to the school. Nothing was exchanged. I don’t know why he did that,” Antonova said. “When I asked, he said something like, he was wealthy and wanted to help people when he could.”

In a 2010 YouTube video, Antonova stated that she played bridge with Gates after meeting him. It has since been reported that Gates had multiple meetings with Epstein, beginning in 2011.

In 2019, The New York Times published a report stating,

In fact, beginning in 2011, Mr. Gates met with Mr. Epstein on numerous occasions — including at least three times at Mr. Epstein’s palatial Manhattan townhouse, and at least once staying late into the night, according to interviews with more than a dozen people familiar with the relationship, as well as documents reviewed by The New York Times. Employees of Mr. Gates’s foundation also paid multiple visits to Mr. Epstein’s mansion. And Mr. Epstein spoke with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and JPMorgan Chase about a proposed multibillion-dollar charitable fund — an arrangement that had the potential to generate enormous fees for Mr. Epstein.

Flight records show that Gates used Epstein’s plane to travel from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey to Palm Beach, Florida in March 2013. Gates and his wife had a meeting with Epstein during a trip to New York City in the same year. Melinda Gates reportedly felt uncomfortable about the meeting and was upset about her husband’s connection with Epstein, who had been convicted for child abuse.

Melinda Gates told “CBS Mornings” last year, “I did not like that [Bill] had meetings with Jeffrey Epstein. I made that clear to him. I also met Jeffrey Epstein exactly one time. I wanted to see who this man was, and I regretted it from the second I stepped in the door.”

Melinda called Epstein “abhorrent, evil personified.”

She added, “I had nightmares about it afterwards. That’s why my heart breaks for these young women. That’s how I felt, and I am an older woman. He was awful.”

In May 2021, it was announced that Bill Gates and Melinda, who had been married for 27 years, were getting divorced. During an interview in January 2023, Gates appeared to be frustrated when asked about his relationship with Epstein.

“I said that I’m— this is going way back in time, but yeah I will say for the over 100th time, yeah I shouldn’t have had dinners with him,” Gates said.

When asked about Epstein’s reputation for sexually compromising people during an interview, Gates stated that he had only had dinner with Epstein and denied any further association with him. Epstein had previously pleaded guilty to charges related to prostitution of a minor in 2008 and died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking. The Wall Street Journal had reported that Epstein had met with several individuals, including a CIA director, Noam Chomsky, Obama’s White House counsel, and a Rothschild.