Outside investigators hired by the Gates Foundation concluded that the influential philanthropy did not participate in the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender who sought to cultivate a relationship with Bill Gates.
The law firm WilmerHale investigated only the foundation and not Mr. Gates’s dealings with Mr. Epstein in “a personal capacity.” Mr. Gates, who heads and funds the foundation, was among the 50-odd current and former foundation employees and officers interviewed.
But the review was limited in key ways, as the investigators acknowledged in a footnote: Its lawyers did not have access to Mr. Gates’s personal communications with Mr. Epstein. The review did not include Mr. Gates’s personal interactions with Mr. Epstein. Nor did the review include the activities of Mr. Gates’s private office, Gates Ventures, whose employees had contact with Mr. Epstein, according to the files released by the Justice Department this year.
In a three-page executive summary released on Tuesday by the foundation, WilmerHale said it “found no evidence of participation in or knowledge of Epstein’s ongoing sex trafficking operations or criminal activities.” Investigators also said that the foundation was not aware at the time that Mr. Epstein was using its name “to help advance his conduct,” and “found no evidence that Epstein was paid by the foundation.”
The full report was not made public. But its top-line findings may help put to rest some of the unease inside the foundation after the release of the Epstein files invoked a fervor in right-wing circles and inside the $90 billion foundation.
Mr. Gates has consistently denied that his ties to Mr. Epstein went beyond seeking a philanthropic partnership, and he has repeatedly described that effort as an error in judgment. The review noted that foundation leaders, including Mr. Gates, had met with Mr. Epstein roughly 30 times between 2011 to 2014 to discuss, among other topics, Mr. Epstein’s idea to set up a donor-advised fund.
The review said that Mr. Gates and other senior foundation staff were made aware of Mr. Epstein’s criminal conviction. “Mr. Gates was aware of reputational concerns related to Epstein’s prior conviction and sentencing for a sex-related offense when he began conversations with him in 2011,” investigators wrote.
Mr. Gates, who is the co-founder of Microsoft, said in a statement Tuesday: “Completing this review is an important step in providing the clarity that partners, employees and grantees deserve.”
The foundation said it would institute a series of governance reforms in the wake of the WilmerHale report, including new vetting processes and greater scrutiny of people who work for Mr. Gates’s personal ventures and the foundation simultaneously.