Warren Buffett pauses Gates Foundation donation over Epstein ties, awaits review

Warren Buffett has paused his annual donation to the Gates Foundation while a review examines past links involving Bill Gates and Jeffrey Epstein. The move interrupts a nearly two-decade giving pattern and leaves the billionaire investor waiting to see what the review uncovers.

In Short

• Warren Buffett pauses annual donation to Gates Foundation after nearly 20 years
• Decision follows review of Bill Gates's links to Jeffrey Epstein
• Buffett has donated over $47 billion to the foundation since 2006

For the first time in nearly two decades, Warren Buffett has decided to pause his annual donation to the Gates Foundation, as the billionaire investor awaits the outcome of a review examining the organisation and its co-founder Bill Gates's past links to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

Buffett, 95, who remains chairman of Berkshire Hathaway after handing over the CEO role to Greg Abel earlier this year, is expected to revisit the decision later this year, possibly in his traditional Thanksgiving letter, informed sources told the Journal.

The move marks a break from Buffett’s long-standing practice of donating Berkshire Hathaway stock to the Gates Foundation and four family-run charities around midyear.

Last year, his contribution to the Gates Foundation alone was valued at more than $4.5 billion.

Since beginning his philanthropic giving in 2006, Buffett has donated more than $47 billion worth of Berkshire shares to the foundation, making it the biggest beneficiary of his fortune.

Buffett had signalled earlier this year that he was reconsidering future donations to the foundation following renewed attention on the relationship between Epstein and the Microsoft co-founder.

In a March interview with CNBC, Buffett said he had not spoken to Bill Gates since the US Department of Justice released documents showing that the Microsoft co-founder had multiple meetings with Epstein to discuss philanthropy after the disgraced financier’s 2008 guilty plea in a Florida prostitution case.

Asked whether he would continue supporting the foundation, Buffett said: “I’ll wait and see what unfolds... I’m learning things I didn’t know."

The Gates Foundation has said Bill Gates “took responsibility for his actions” and has maintained that Epstein had no role in its grant-making decisions.

The Microsoft co-founder has said his relationship with Epstein was confined to philanthropy, and that it was a mistake to meet him.

He has also denied spending time with victims of the financier's sexual abuse.

Despite the controversy, Buffett has said he does not regret his donations to the foundation, though he wished “certain things hadn’t happened.”

He also said he was shocked by how Epstein managed to gain the trust of influential people before his arrest on sex-trafficking charges in 2019.

"I don't see how anybody could have pulled that off," Buffett said. "This guy found people's weaknesses ... It is ruining one person after another."

In 2024, Buffett had said that his remaining wealth would eventually be directed away from the Gates Foundation after his death, with the vast majority going into a charitable trust managed by his children.

- Ends
(With Reuters inputs)