Bill Gates’ actions with Epstein ‘distasteful,’ but people make mistakes
Warren Buffett has described Bill Gates’ relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein as “distasteful” after the Berkshire Hathaway chairman excluded the Gates Foundation from his major annual philanthropic donations.
“I’ve been reading a lot about Bill and Epstein since January 1,” Buffett said in an interview with CNBC’s Becky Quick. “As unpleasant as it was, I made mistakes while he was making mistakes, hiring all kinds of people or choosing friends, and then one way or another I found out they weren’t what I thought they were. I didn’t find anything there beyond what I could imagine myself doing.”
Buffett, who has been friends with Gates for more than three decades, said he thoroughly reviewed information about Gates’ relationship with Epstein before deciding to overhaul his charitable donations. Buffett, 95, directed all of this year’s donations to four family-connected foundations.
For years, the Gates Foundation was the largest recipient of annual Berkshire donations. Since 2006, Buffett has donated more than $47 billion worth of Berkshire stock to the charity founded by Microsoft co-founder and ex-wife Melinda Gates.
Buffett said he and Gates keep in touch and recently spent several hours together in Omaha.
“He came to Omaha three weeks ago. I lost track of time, but it’s definitely not three months, and we spent three hours talking together,” Buffett said. “He’s thinking of calling me… He’s already suggested another meeting.”
Owned by Buffett’s children
The Oracle of Omaha said her estate plan should give her three children more responsibility. He said he had been slowly preparing them for this role for decades.
“I re-evaluated my entire situation,” Buffett said. “What happened was I gave a large amount of money to the Gates Foundation. I thought it was a good decision. I think it was a reasonable decision, but I didn’t think my kids were in any way ready to give a large amount of money.”
“I tell the three kids that this is theirs and it’s their responsibility to do it well,” he said.
Buffett said earlier this week that his goal is to divest all of his Berkshire shares in about eight years as his children “unfortunately grow older.”
This year Buffett is giving Susan Thompson Buffett FoundationThe current value of the 9 million Class B shares, named for his late first wife, is approximately $4.5 billion. Three foundations run by children of Susie Buffett Sherwood Foundation, Howard G. Buffett Foundationand Peter Buffett NoVo Foundation, will receive 1 million Class B shares worth just under $500 million each.
Buffett also said he recently had surgery after breaking his leg a few weeks ago and is doing well.
