Billionaire Warren Buffett stopped donating to Bill Gates’ charity

Billionaire tycoon Warren Buffett has stopped donating to Bill Gates’ charity just weeks after the Microsoft co-founder disclosed his relationship with late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Buffett In 2006, Berkshire Hathaway was known to donate shares in the company to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

But on Thursday, the Gates Foundation was left out of the list of organizations receiving billions of dollars worth of stock.

The stock is instead divided among four foundations that include members of the Buffett family. The 95-year-old said he would dispose of the remaining stock over the next eight years.

“Of course mortality is unpredictable,” Buffett said. But my remaining share will be donated to the four foundations in one way or another till 31st December 2034.

Gates’ relationship with Epstein became public when the US Department of Justice released files in January.

Buffett did not mention Gates or Epstein by name in his statement about the donation.

But in March He told CNBC., External He said he had not spoken to Gates “after all was revealed.”

He added, “I don’t want to be in the position of knowing things … I don’t want to be called as a witness.”

Buffett has donated $47bn (£35bn) to the Gates charity over 20 years.

“We are grateful to Warren Buffett for his decades of support of our work,” the Gates Foundation told the BBC.

The Foundation will continue to have the financial strength to advance our work through 2045, supported by the Bill’s $200 billion commitment.

In June Gates appeared before the US House Oversight Committee In the year in 2019 to answer questions about his relationship with Epstein, who was in a New York prison awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

In a transcript of his testimony, Gates said he met Epstein in 2011 on the premise that he could raise billions of dollars for global health — the foundation’s main focus.

“I remember learning that Epstein had been in legal trouble before, but I didn’t fully understand the extent of his crimes,” Gates said.

Three years ago, Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution and procuring a person under 18 for prostitution.

Gates told the committee: “I should not have met with Epstein in the first place. Based on what I know now, I understand that it was inappropriate for me to meet with him even though he delivered the donors he promised.”

Buffett was an ardent supporter of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which in In 2006, they said they “greatly” appreciated what he was doing and pledged to make an annual donation.

In the year In 2010, Bill and Melinda Gates and Buffett launched the Giving Pledge, an initiative to get the super-wealthy to give away most of their wealth during their lifetime or in their wills.

Bill and Melinda Gates divorced in 2021 after 27 years of marriage.

Melinda French Gates