Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said on Tuesday that he has not spoken to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates since documents detailing Gates’s alleged association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein became public.
Speaking to CNBC, the Berkshire Hathaway chairman said he has deliberately kept his distance to avoid being drawn into the matter as a potential witness.
“I haven’t talked to him at all since the whole thing was unveiled,” Buffett said, adding,”I don’t want to be in a position where I know things, to be called as a witness”.
The two billionaires have long shared a close personal and philanthropic relationship. Since 2006, Buffett has donated more than USD 43 billion to the Gates Foundation, co-founded by Bill Gates and his former wife, Melinda Gates. Together, they also launched The Giving Pledge, an initiative encouraging the world’s wealthiest individuals to commit the majority of their fortunes to charitable causes.
However, Buffett indicated that the controversy surrounding Epstein has strained communication. “I think until it gets cleared up, it doesn’t make sense to do a lot of talking,” he said.
Gates’s name has appeared in documents linked to Epstein, including claims that Epstein had knowledge of Gates’s alleged interactions with women. A draft email attributed to Epstein claimed that Gates had contracted a sexually transmitted disease and sought to discreetly arrange treatment for his then wife.
Gates, in February, acknowledged his past association with Epstein and apologised to his staff, calling it a “huge mistake” to have spent time with him. However, he maintained that he “never spent any time with victims or the women around him.”
Buffett, meanwhile, described Epstein as an exceptionally manipulative individual.
“It is astounding to me that anyone could be that successful as a con man,” Buffett said, noting, “Men are going to like sex … and some of them are going to like not paying taxes, and he figured out their weaknesses”.
The Berkshire Hathaway chief also noted that Gates could have introduced him to Epstein but did not. “I’ve got him to thank for not doing that,” Buffett said, while acknowledging that the broader fallout from the scandal remains unavoidable.
