World’s leading investor Warren Buffet has stopped his annual donation to the Gates Foundation for the first time in nearly 20 years. According to media reports, Buffett will not make any new donations until the review of the foundation and its co-founder Bill Gates’ past relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is completed. 95-year-old Buffett has handed over the post of CEO of Berkshire Hathaway to Greg Abel this year, but is still the chairman of the company. According to the Wall Street Journal report, he may take a final decision on this donation in his traditional Thanksgiving message at the end of the year.
This decision of Buffett is different from his many years old tradition. Buffett has been donating Berkshire Hathaway shares every year around June-July to the Gates Foundation and four charitable organizations related to his family. Last year, he donated shares worth more than $4.5 billion to the Gates Foundation alone. Since 2006, he has donated shares worth more than $47 billion to this foundation. The Gates Foundation has received the largest share of his total charity.
Talk stopped after name appeared in Epstein files
In an interview with CNBC in March, Buffett had said that he had not spoken to Bill Gates after the US Justice Department documents (Epstein files) came to light. It was said in these documents that even after Epstein was convicted in 2008, Bill Gates had met him several times on issues related to philanthropy. When Buffett was asked whether he would donate to the Gates Foundation in the future, he said, I will wait and see what happens next. I am now knowing things about which I did not know before.
Gates Foundation denies Epstein’s role
The Gates Foundation says that Bill Gates has admitted his mistake and Epstein had no role in any decision or grant of the Foundation. At the same time, Bill Gates has also said that meeting her was a mistake and their relationship was limited only to charitable works. He has also denied allegations of spending time with victims of sexual abuse.
Buffett said that he does not regret his past donations. But he also said that he was surprised how Epstein won the trust of such influential people. According to him, Epstein used to take advantage of people’s weaknesses and tarnished the image of many people. Buffett had also made it clear in 2024 that after his death, most of his remaining property would not be given to the Gates Foundation, but to a charitable trust run by his children.
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