Warren Buffett said Bill Gates’ ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were “distasteful” – but added that everybody makes mistakes and said he recently met with the Microsoft founder before he ended donations to the Gates Foundation.
The 95-year-old chairman of Berkshire Hathaway told CNBC that he has been following Gates’ sworn testimony to Congress this year, which revealed Epstein had learned of Gates’ affairs with two Russian women and tried to use the infidelity to potentially blackmail him into reconnecting.
“While it’s distasteful, while he made mistakes, I’ve made mistakes in hiring all kinds of people or choosing friends and then finding out later that one way or another, they weren’t what I thought they were,” Buffett said.
“So I found nothing in there that was beyond what I can picture myself doing. He ended it and I’ve had situations where I’ve made mistakes … but life goes on. No one bats a thousand in the business of choosing people.”
The “Oracle of Omaha,” who has been friends with Gates for about 35 years, on Tuesday announced his donations of $6 billion in Berkshire shares this year – notably excluding the Gates Foundation and ending a two-decade philanthropic partnership with the tech billionaire.
“I reevaluated my whole situation,” Buffett said. “What happened was that I gave the Gates Foundation a great deal of money. I thought that was a good decision. I think it was a decent decision, but I did not think my kids were in any way ready to give away vast sums of money.”
He directed all of his annual mid-year donations this year to four family-linked foundations run by his daughter Susie and sons Howard and Peter.
The Gates Foundation – founded by Gates and his ex-wife Melinda French Gates – was the largest recipient of Buffett’s annual donations for years, receiving more than $47 billion worth of Berkshire stock since 2006.
In his testimony last month, Gates told Congress he was introduced to Epstein in 2011 – three years after the disgraced financier pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution and four years after Epstein reached a controversial non-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors.
He said the relationship ended by December 2014.
Gates has not been accused of crimes and has repeatedly expressed regret for his past ties to the notorious sex trafficker.
The Microsoft maven previously told Congress that when he tried to cut ties with Epstein in 2014, the perv financier attempted to force his way back into Gates’ life through knowledge of his extramarital affairs — setting the stage to potentially blackmail him.
Buffett said he and Gates are still in touch and recently met in Omaha for three hours, adding that his pivot in charitable giving is an attempt to prepare his children to take over his fortune.
“He came by Omaha three weeks ago. I kind of lose track of time, but certainly not three months, and we spent three hours talking together,” Buffett said. “He intends to call me … He already proposed another meeting.”
In a statement earlier this week, Buffett said he aims to disperse all of his Berkshire stock within eight years as his children are “unfortunately growing older.”
The billionaire has previously said that after his death, his children will run a charitable trust containing about 99.5% of his remaining wealth.
This year, Buffett is giving 9 million Class B shares worth roughly $4.5 billion to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for his late wife; and 1 million Class B shares worth nearly $500 million each to daughter Susie’s Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and son Peter’s NoVo Foundation.
