Bill Gates speaks during the Gates Foundation’s first global Goalkeepers event in the Nordics, being held in Stockholm, Sweden, on January 22, 2026.
TT News Agency Stefan Gerevang | via reuters
Gates Foundation has launched an external review of the charity’s past relationship with notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, wall street journal Information was given on Tuesday.
To cut costs, the Gates Foundation will eliminate 500 jobs, or about 20% of its staff, by 2030, the Journal reported, citing an email to employees as the newspaper announced both the job cuts and the review of Epstein ties.
“This is a challenging time for our organization in many ways, but it also highlights the critical importance of taking strong action now,” Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman reportedly said in the memo.
The foundation, which has a 2026 budget of about $9 billion, plans to limit operating expenses to $1.25 billion, the Journal said.
By whom was the Gates Foundation established? Microsoft Co-founder Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda Gates.
Gates is scheduled to be interviewed about Epstein on June 10. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
“For context, as we told the WSJ, none of the ‘announcements’ included in the article published today are new,” the Gates Foundation said in an email to CNBC.
“These were included in an update given to all Foundation employees by CEO Mark Suzman on a number of topics related to Foundation operations,” the foundation said. Press releases about budget cap and Epstein’s Relationship Review The foundation was released earlier this year.
In February, Bill Gates apologized to foundation staff for his relationship with Epstein and admitted to having affairs with two Russian women, which Epstein found out about. Journal Reported earlier.
Gates told staff, “I didn’t do anything illegal. I didn’t see anything illegal,” the newspaper reported.
Gates became friends with Epstein in 2011, three years after Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida state court to soliciting an underage girl for prostitution.
Epstein killed himself in a New York City federal prison in August 2019, weeks after his arrest on child sex trafficking charges.
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett told CNBC in March that he had not spoken to Gates since details of Epstein’s communications with Gates were revealed in documents released by Congress and the Justice Department.
“I don’t want to be in a situation where I know things … to be called as a witness,” said Buffett, who has donated more than $43 billion to the Gates Foundation since 2006.
read the Full Wall Street Journal article here.