Gates Foundation reviewing Jeffrey Epstein ties, will slash staff: WSJ

To cut costs, the Gates Foundation will eliminate up to 500 jobs, or about 20% of its staff, by 2030, the Journal reported, citing an email to staff that the newspaper reviewed announcing both the job cuts and Epstein ties review.

“This is a challenging time for our organization in many ways, but it also highlights the critical importance of taking the tough actions now,” Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman reportedly said in the memo.

The Journal said the foundation, which has a 2026 budget of about $9 billion, plans to cap operating expenses at $1.25 billion.

The Gates Foundation was founded by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his ex-wife, Melinda Gates.

Gates is scheduled to be interviewed about Epstein on June 10 by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The Gates Foundation, in an email to CNBC, said “For context, as we noted to the WSJ, neither of the ‘announcements’ included in the article published today are new.”

“These were included in an update from CEO Mark Suzman to all foundation employees on a range of topics related to foundation operations,” the foundation said, pointing to press releases about the budget cap and the review of Epstein’s relations with the foundation released earlier this year.

In February, Bill Gates apologized to the foundation’s staff for his association with Epstein and admitted having affairs with two Russian women, which Epstein learned of, the Journal previously reported.

Gates told staff, “I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit,” the newspaper reported.

Gates became friends with Epstein in 2011, three years after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida state court to soliciting an underage girl for prostitution.

Epstein killed himself in August 2019, while in a New York City federal jail, weeks after his arrest on child sex trafficking charges.

Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett told CNBC in March that he has not spoken to Gates since details of Epstein’s communications with Gates were revealed in documents released by Congress and by the Justice Department.

“I don’t want to be in a position where I know things … to be called as a witness,” said Buffett, who since 2006 has donated more than $43 billion to the Gates Foundation.

Read the full Wall Street Journal article here.