All the philanthropy in the world won’t erase his character — especially when all that money is coming from the accumulation of excess wealth. Bill Gates is getting scrutinized rather intensely, and it turns out he was the subject of internal investigation at Microsoft over his philandering. And there’s more! A while history of coming on to women in his employ!
And while it’s unclear whether the revelation about or investigation of the affair in question was a contributing factor to Gates’ recently-announced divorce from his wife of 27 years, philanthropist Melinda French Gates, it is an example of a longstanding pattern of questionable behavior by Gates. According to the New York Times report published on Sunday, Gates pursued multiple women who worked for him at Microsoft and at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In 2006, he attended a presentation by a female Microsoft employee. As soon as she wrapped, he reportedly emailed her and asked her to dinner. “If this makes you uncomfortable, pretend it never happened,” Gates wrote in the email, which was shared with the Times. The employee said she did feel uncomfortable and ignored the request.
What could make this worse? Let’s throw in his entanglement with Jeffrey Epstein!
Her concerns over Gates’ priorities were only compounded when the New York Times published the 2019 article “Bill Gates Met With Jeffrey Epstein Many Times, Despite His Past,” which detailed the men’s meetings together. While Epstein was connected with many wealthy and powerful people, “unlike many others, Mr. Gates started the relationship after Mr. Epstein was convicted of sex crimes,” the Times said. At the time, Bill told the publication, “I met him. I didn’t have any business relationship or friendship with him.” But The Daily Beast reported on Sunday that “the billionaire met Epstein dozens of times starting in 2011 and continuing through to 2014 mostly at the financier’s Manhattan home” to discuss Gates’ “toxic” marriage.
A Gates representative denied the allegation: “Bill never received or solicited personal advice of any kind from Epstein— on marriage or anything else. Bill never complained about Melinda or his marriage to Epstein.”
His only salvation: give away all of his money and retreat into obscurity, where he’ll never again be able to meddle in affairs beyond his competence.
Ray Ceeya says
The more I find out about Epstein, the more trouble I have understanding why he attracted so many people to his circle. It sounds like everyone knew he was a creep but they kept going to his parties anyway. WTF? I’ll never understand rich people.
davidc1 says
Does this mean that bill -gold plated gates really is trying to control us with his vaccines ?
davidc1 says
@1 There is a short novel by the late Graham Greene , Doctor Fischer of Geneva OR The Bomb Party .
It might give you an insight into what makes rich people tick .
Erlend Meyer says
@Ray Ceeya #1: They’re creeps too.
Snarki, child of Loki says
“His only salvation: give away all of his money and retreat into obscurity, ”
He can take Clippy with him, also, too.
christoph says
There was an entertaining TV show in the 90’s/early 2000’s called “Good vs Evil.” One of the rules in the series was that if someone who served the forces of evil wanted salvation, they had to live the rest of their life in mediocrity and never be important or noteworthy again.
rsmith says
Snarki, child of Loki@5
I’d have him refund every copy of ms-windows.
Intransitive says
This is not to make moral equivalencies (“which crime is worse?”):
For forty years, Gates and Microsoft got away with predatory and monopolistic business practices that other companies in the past did not (ITT, Standard Oil, etc.) and thought he was above the law. If post-1980 US politicians weren’t so owned by corporations that bribed them, Gates held accountable and Microsoft broken up, perhaps he would not have thought he could get away with sexual improprieties.
The Vicar (via Freethoughtblogs) says
“All the philanthropy in the world”. Right, like the private prisons the Gates Foundation invested in, as revealed in their 2012 audit. Or the way Gates talked Oxford into selling the patent of their coronavirus vaccine to AstraZeneca instead of letting it be used for free. The more you investigate Gates’ “philanthropic” actions over the last few decades, the more you realize that it was all just self-serving investment (like the way the Gates Foundation gave away free Windows PCs… targeted almost exclusively at markets where Windows was not dominant, like education) combined with PR moves to whitewash Gates’ name. Such philanthropy!
What’s even funnier is how he managed to portray himself semi-successfully as a self-made man to a lot of people, when he inherited a fortune from his parents and would never have been anywhere near as successful without it. (It’s how he bought DOS from its original author to resell directly to IBM in 1978 or so; without the DOS deal, Microsoft would have remained a niche player and might even have gone out of business by now). Gates has never been anything but a member of the 1%, and he has always been an evil asshole, but I constantly run across people who think Microsoft started off in Gates’ parents’ garage or something.
@#1, Ray Ceeya:
Every single article I’ve read says that Epstein was really good at stroking the egos of rich people who wanted to be perceived as intelligent. (Which is, of course, ironic, given that every single one of them either participated in his child sex ring or were too stupid to back the heck away when the rumors started flying, and are thus now can’t prove they didn’t participate. Real smart, there.) Bill Gates was, for decades, the poster boy for the category of “rich person who wants people to think he’s smart”, before Elon Musk took the title from him — the wonder is that Gates didn’t get involved with Epstein earlier than he did.
@#5, Snarki, child of Loki:
His wife had more responsibility for Clippy than he did. (She was the head of marketing for Microsoft Bob, an alternative interface for Windows which flopped dramatically, and which introduced “active assistants”, of which Clippy was one. Gates may have greenlit the project, but she had more input into how it behaved.)
Larry says
Various reports out this morning and afternoon are saying that Gates was pursuing contacts with Epstein in hopes that his influence and contacts with certain people would help Gates be nominated for and win the Nobel Peace award.
If true, this makes Gates out to be even more of an ass than ever before. Yuck!
DLC says
::Clippy :: “You seem to want to tar and feather Bill Gates . . . “
Ridana says
While I always thought Clippy looked like he wanted to sell me a fine Rolex for $20, I really liked the Mac skin (a Mac Plus with legs, that looked like a Star Wars droid). It was like a puppy dog and very expressive, especially if you ignored it and it got bored or sad. And like Clippy, you could always just turn it off if it annoyed you, so I never understood all the hate it got. Well, aside from it being pretty useless at actually helping you.