Billionaires back away from Bill Gates' 'fake Boomer club' over his Epstein ties
· Toronto Sun
A shadow looms over a philanthropic initiative backed by Bill Gates due to the billionaire’s link to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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“The Giving Pledge” was launched in 2010 by Gates, his then-wife Melissa French Gates and Warren Buffett, and encouraged the uber-wealthy to contribute at least half of their net worth to charitable causes.
However, despite its good intentions, billionaires don’t want to (or now have an excuse to not) be connected to the campaign after Gates revealed his ties to Epstein.
Which billionaires are bolting?
Venture capitalist and Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel may not be a signatory but he is privately urging fellow billionaires, including Elon Musk, to abandon the “Epstein-adjacent, fake Boomer club,” according to the New York Times .
Thiel told Musk that he should pull out of the initiative because his money would go “to left-wing nonprofits that will be chosen by Bill Gates,” the Times reported, citing a speech Thiel recently delivered .
While the campaign claims to be “issue-agnostic,” meaning donors choose which philanthropic causes they want to support, some critics argued that the nonprofits and foundations favoured by major donors reflect lefty priorities, rather than politically neutral charities.
Larry Ellison, Oracle co-founder and one of the original signatories, said last year he was “amending” his pledge to focus more heavily on for-profit research ventures, the Times reported.
Meanwhile, Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong quietly exited the initiative entirely in 2024 — removing his name from the pledge’s website five years after signing on, according to the publication.
Buffett and French Gates also departed
Buffett, 95, stepped down from the foundation, citing his “physical limitations,” but added that he believes in The Giving Pledge and considers it “quite a success.”
He added: “I have continued to contact possible members but only on a minor scale in recent years. Bill Gates has continued major efforts.”
French Gates stepped away from the foundation that administers the Giving Pledge in 2024, three years after her divorce from Gates.
She admitted to Wired last year that the initiative has not progressed as she once believed it would.
“I wish we had been even more successful with the Pledge than we have been to date,” she said. “It’s a problem to continue working on.”
Gates’ affairs just part of the backlash
Gates has come under fire in recent weeks for cheating on French Gates with two Russian women he met through Epstein.
The Microsoft co-founder admitted that his connection to Epstein was one of the factors that led to his split from his wife of 27 years.
“To give her credit, she was always kind of skeptical about the Epstein thing,” he said in his public apology.
Gates also expressed remorse for dragging Gates Foundation executives into meetings with the predator.
“I apologize to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake I made,” he said.
“It definitely is the opposite of the values of the foundation and the goals of the foundation.”