Transcription
A new report claims Jeffrey Epstein may have threatened Bill Gates over an alleged affair. Law and Crime managing editor Adam Classfeld comes on to get into this bombshell allegation. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law & Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. All right, so let's get into this report from The Wall Street Journal. It's written by Hadija Safdar and Emily Glaser. And that is that Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender, the man who died in his jail cell while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, he may have tried to threaten Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates over an alleged affair. An affair with a Russian bridge player named Mila Antonova, whom apparently Gates met around 2010 when she was in her 20s. This is someone that Epstein knew as well and had an interesting relationship that we're going to get into as well. So it's time to bring in Law & Crime managing editor Adam Classfeld to get into this. Because Adam, you have been following this Jeffrey Epstein saga from the very beginning. You've saw this bombshell report. It's my understanding that this is all based on an email to Gates that it seems, you know, not confirmed, but it seemed seems that Epstein was threatening to expose this affair that Gates had, may have had with Antonova. He was married at the time, and he wanted to do that because Gates wouldn't participate in this multi-million dollar fund that Epstein was trying to set up with JPMorgan Chase. I mean, do I have the basic facts, the basic synopsis of this correct?
You do. And to go even a step further, the story reports a statement by a Gates spokesperson who basically all out alleges, goes out and says that Epstein tried to leverage this compromising information in order to get what he wanted, namely investment into this fund that he sought to profit from. Now, this was the most explosive bombshell for me. And when I first read about this and heard about this, I was racking my brain for another time where someone came out and essentially accused Jeffrey Epstein of trying to leverage compromising information. Now, to put this into perspective, there have been, there's been speculation for years that Jeffrey Epstein, the blackmail, the powerful, and tried to leverage compromising information about sexual relationships in order to advance his personal interests. And that's always been a very interesting theory because everyone wants to know how did Jeffrey Epstein win the trust of so many billionaires? To just give one example, it's stupefying how Jeffrey Epstein essentially, uh, gained billionaire Les Wexner's, uh, power of attorney. That Wexner essentially allowed Jeffrey Epstein to sign over power of attorney to him, to have massive power over his finances, over his personal projects. And folks have been asking for years, how did Jeffrey Epstein get so many powerful people into his circle and seemingly to do his bidding? And so the significance of this story is that it's the first time one person, and that person being Bill Gates, is all but confirming Jeffrey Epstein tried to leverage compromising information. And I can talk a little bit more about that in light of what we know about Jeffrey Epstein a little bit later.
It's interesting you're saying, um, that the terminology you're using, because one of the things the Wall Street Journal didn't do was use the term blackmail. But that kind of looks like what this is, right? I mean, walk us through what the exact allegation is. I mean, what did this email say, and why would it be interpreted as Epstein threatening Bill Gates?
Well, you know, if it looks like a duck, and it talks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, uh, it seems to be a duck. And in this case, we have an explicit allegation of trying to leverage compromising information for a personal end. Now, I think anyone listening or watching this podcast has a word for that allegation, and that word is blackmail. But you're right, Jesse, the Wall Street Journal avoids using that word. And, you know, one might think that when you have a scoop this explosive, uh, this is a story that probably goes all the way up to legal to kind of discuss, hey, how can we characterize this? Because remember, blackmail is a crime. Um, it's a crime to accept blackmail, it's a crime to try to blackmail someone. Um, so one might think they thought, hey, you know, we have this exclusive story, uh, we, and the story is that some someone is confirming on the record that Jeffrey Epstein allegedly tried to leverage this compromising information for his personal ends. And they say they didn't accept it, they didn't, uh, take the bait. Let's just be clear about what happened here. So in 2017, Epstein contacts Gates about this Russian bridge player, Mila Antonova. And this is years after this alleged affair had ended. And apparently he was saying to Gates, I want to be reimbursed because I paid for her to go to some sort of software coding school, and I want you to reimburse me this. And, and I find that to be so odd on a number of different levels, because what is the relationship between Epstein and Antonova whereby he paid for her to go to school? And why would he want Gates to reimburse him for those expenses? That this is the part that doesn't make sense to me. It's a really bizarre allegation, the way that this pans out. But it's also part of Epstein's MO in many ways. Remember, he constantly leveraged charitable donations for his personal advantage. We see this in the trial of Elaine Maxwell, where he essentially, uh, paid a giant donation to, uh, Interlocken School or School in, uh, for young budding artists and had a Jeffrey Epstein Lodge named after him there. Why did he do that? Well, we find out over the course of the trial that he lured one of his victims from this school. So Jeffrey Epstein trying to make these quote-unquote charitable donations to advance his personal interests is something that we've seen throughout the Jeffrey Epstein saga. Now, with respect to this Russian bridge player, uh, she said in this article that this was something that he purported as, as one of his charitable, uh, things he likes to give money to certain causes. But we also see lurking in the background his personal interest. And the same thing happening with Bill Gates. The context for this, Jesse, and perhaps why all of this information is coming out now, is this fund that Jeffrey Epstein tried to court Bill Gates for, uh, involving JP Morgan. And it didn't, it fizzled out. And this was his ace in the hole. Let's, let's unpack that a little bit.
So first of all, Miss Antonova has come out and said, quote, I had no idea that he, meaning Jeffrey Epstein, was a criminal or had any ulterior motive. I just thought he was a successful businessman and wanted to help. I am disgusted with Epstein and what he did. Remember, so again, she develops, she meets him, she pitches this idea for an online bridge school. He gives her advice. He even has her stay in his apartment. Now, there's no allegation that there was any kind of sexual relationship between them, as far as I can tell. It was just he said he wanted to do, you know, help people. He's got a lot of money. And I find it very curious talking about this, what he did for her. And then this multi-million dollar charity that he tried to set up with JP Morgan, because the way that I'm reading this is this is after he was, he pled guilty in 2008 to those, uh, solicitation charges, and he became a sex offender. And he was trying to rehabilitate his image, right? That's one of the reasons he wanted to set up his fund and get all these wealthy people to donate. I think at a minimum, $100 million each. What did you think about that?
Well, this was part of his rehabilitation tour. And let's take, like, the bird's eye perspective on this. As you mentioned, 2008, Jeffrey Epstein pleads guilty to solicitation of prostitution from a minor. Uh, and this is coming in the context of, at this point, Jeffrey Epstein is a client of JP Morgan Bank. Uh, this story comes in the course of litigation accusing JP Morgan of knowingly benefiting from Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking scheme. It's known that shortly after Jeffrey Epstein pleads guilty, there's an email talking about pending Diamond review, and we've spoken about this in the past, Jesse, referring to Jamie Dimon, who's going to be deposed over the course of this litigation. So this litigation and another recently settled lawsuit like it is really prying loose a lot of information about the financial relationships. Who was Jeffrey Epstein courting? Who was he trying to introduce to what institutions? What billionaires? And this is why a lot of this information is emerging. People are finally starting to look at the money trail. And so here, what we have is this project over this charitable fund. And there have been other reports suggesting he wanted a fraction of a percentage, but when you're talking $100 million, a cut, a fraction of a percentage really adds up. Uh, this is Jeffrey Epstein trying to accomplish a number of things, trying to get wealthier and trying to leverage his, uh, personal relationships to rehabilitate the fact that he is, by then, a convicted sex offender. And by all accounts, at least that second part of actually both parts of it are startling success. He is back into high society. Uh, he, when JP Morgan finally severs the financial relationship in 2013, he lands immediately as a customer of Deutsche Bank, who recently settled a lawsuit, uh, but for a landmark settlement, uh, because of the embarrassing nature of the revelations that came out in, uh, in that litigation. They have now settled two lawsuits, and we are probably going to hear more when this, uh, JP Morgan, uh, the litigation continues.
Okay, so as those lawsuits try to understand the relationship between JPMorgan Chase and Jeffrey Epstein after it was known he's a criminal, the question that we're coming back to with the Gates case is what was their connection? And whether or not you can interpret Epstein reaching out to Gates in 2017 and saying he wants to be reimbursed for paying for the schooling of his alleged mistress, whether or not that's a threat. You know, he was going to expose that if he wasn't reimbursed. Nothing that I've seen suggests that Bill Gates paid him back, paid Epstein back, or or acquiesced to this threat. I do find it interesting though, when you talk about the connection between Epstein and Gates. So as the article lays out, the person who, who actually introduced Mila Antonova, again, Bill Gates' alleged mistress, to Jeffrey Epstein was a Bill Gates confidante or associate. And then you see that Epstein and Gates had a continuing relationship for quite some time. If you can briefly explain what did we know, maybe before this article, and what did we learn after about the connection, the relationship between Gates and Epstein?
Well, what we knew before this article is that Bill Gates has constantly downplayed his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and basically essentially from the start had denied any connection to him. Then the New York Times some years ago, uh, published a photograph of him next to, uh, Bill Gates, next to Jess Staley, who was a senior JP Morgan executive and a key figure in that JP Morgan litigation. What we see is the, uh, that it went farther than the, then Gates had publicly disclosed. You're very right to emphasize the limits of our knowledge. There has been no evidence that a financial relationship ever happened. We do know that, uh, that Jeffrey Epstein did try to work toward that, and that he was connected to both Bill Gates, met with Bill Gates, discussed the possibility of business with Bill Gates, and knew several of Gates's trusted associates. One of them being someone who he had named the executor of his estate. And you can go into those details a little bit, Jesse, but that person, uh, said he was stupefied that he was named as an executor and turned that down. And this was someone who was a close advisor to Bill Gates, Boris, Boris, Boris Nikolic, again, this confidant of, um, of Mr. Gates. He said he came out with a quote and said, I deeply regret that I ever met Epstein. His crimes were despicable. I never saw anything like his illegal behavior. My heart goes out to his victims and their families. But like you said, he still has this connection to Jeffrey Epstein and Bill Gates. And, and what a connection. I mean, again, to put a fine point on it, he was named as Jeffrey Epstein's executor of his estate. And the, so he says he was stupefied by it. And one might wonder what was, uh, Jeffrey Epstein thinking in naming him the executor.
Pretty incredible, Adam Classfeld. I mean, my goodness, it seems like every day there's another update in the Jeffrey Epstein saga. And I know we're going to have you on to talk about it always with it. Adam, Adam, thank you so much for taking the time.
Thank you for having me. And everyone, thank you so much for joining us here on Sidebar. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. Speak to you next time.
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