Microsoft founder Bill Gates says he regrets meeting with financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after it came out that he responded to Epstein's request to donate money to a research lab by giving $2 million.
"I wish I hadn't met with him," Gates told Axios Monday.
According to the website, Epstein asked Gates in 2014 if he would make a donation to the MIT Media Lab. The request came six years after Epstein pleaded guilty to sex crimes involving minors.
A representative for Gates sent the director of the MIT Media Lab a letter in November 2014, indicating that Gates would give $2 million but wished to remain anonymous. The donation came from bgC3, which is now called Gates Ventures.
Gates told Axios there was no relationship between him and Epstein, who committed suicide last month in his cell at a New York City jail. He was facing several counts of sex trafficking.
"I'd say I didn't have a ... business or personal relationship — I wouldn't go that far," Gates said.
"It was a dead end. I won't say I knew him that well, because he was introduced to me as somebody who could bring more people into philanthropy.
"There were meetings along those lines. That didn't materialize, and so then I stopped meeting with him."
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