A Friend Of A Friend Of Epstein
Warren Buffett gave Bill Gates' foundation $43 billion. Now he doesn't even talk to the guy.
This Week In Blunders March 30-April 4
"A lot of us were in very vulnerable situations and in extreme poverty, circumstances where we didn't have anyone on our side.” - Jane Doe #2
You think you know someone. You give more than $43 billion in assets to his foundation. Then you find out he was meeting with Jeffrey Epstein.
Sometimes life is filled with disappointment, even for Warren Buffett.
The Oracle of Omaha told CNBC this week that he didn’t see it coming:
His longtime friend Bill Gates confirmed meetings with Epstein.
Boris Nikolic, the former scientific adviser to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was named as a backup executor in Epstein’s will.
Melanie Walker, deputy director of special initiatives at the foundation, was a close associate to Epstein.
None have been accused of wrongdoing, but all of them associated with Epstein after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor and registering as a sex offender.
People who had dealings with Epstein after 2008 have had some explaining to do, whether they’ve been accused of wrongdoing or not.
One by one, a lot of them are stepping down from high places – whether they knew about his global sex trafficking network, or not – and there are likely more to fall.
“Anybody that was involved with Epstein ... they’ve been miserable, probably from the moment they learned that things were going to get released,” Buffett told CNBC. ‘And they can’t bury it now. It’s gone too far.”
Buffett stepped down from the Gates foundation board in 2021, but he conceded that he never asked probing questions.
“If I thought I had to ask probing questions, I wouldn’t have put the money in in first place,” the 95-year-old investing legend told CNBC.
So that’s the end of that, $43 billion later.
“I haven’t talked to him at all since the whole thing was unveiled,” Buffet said of Gates. “I don’t want to be in a position where I know things. I could get called as a witness.”
Read More:
Banking On Epstein (Business Blunders)
Sultan Of Sleaze (Business Blunders)
An Epstein Valentine (Business Blunders)
Party With Mr. Dahmer (Business Blunders)
Networking With A Pedophile (Business Blunders)
Meditations With A Sex Offender (Business Blunders)
Winter Is Coming For Summers (Business Blunders)
Was Maxwell Smart? (Business Blunders Hall Of Shame)
Buffett said he never crossed paths with Epstein. Chalk it up to geography or luck. Omaha isn’t Manhattan.
He could have attended some society function and ended up in a photo with Epstein. But thankfully, this will not be his legacy.
Buffett called Epstein the world’s greatest con man and offered a plainspoken explanation of how he succeeded.
“Men are going to like sex,” Buffett said, “and some of them are going to like not paying taxes, and he figured out their weaknesses.”
Of course, Epstein also succeeded by getting wealthy, powerful and influential people to stop asking probing questions.
OneTaste, Nine Years
Nicole Daedone, founder of a Silicon Valley “orgasmic meditation” company OneTaste, was sentenced to nine years in prison this week for her role in a forced labor conspiracy.
Rachel Cherwitz, OneTaste’s former Head of Sales, got six and a half years.
Under the guise of running a wellness company aimed at female empowerment, they turned vulnerable women into sex slaves, coercing them to sleep with clients and investors.
The scheme came apart after a 2018 expose by Bloomberg BusinessWeek and then a 2022 Netflix documentary, “Orgasm Inc.”
Read More: Silicon Valley Sex Farm (Business Blunders)
“The defendants used psychological, emotional, and financial coercion to control their victims and extract labor and services for their own benefit,” said U.S. Attorney Nocella in announcing the sentencing. “The defendants’ combination of forced labor with sexual exploitation caused trauma to the victims in ways that extend beyond lost wages or long hours.”
It’s apparently a more common business model for the monied class than anyone ever suspected. It worked for Epstein … until he ended up dead in a jail cell.
A royal swindler
Financier Martin Frankel is perhaps the most notorious insurance fraudster of all time.
In the 1990s, he created a fake European trust and used it to acquire struggling life insurance companies. Then he siphoned off $208 million from their reserves, leaving policyholders and insurance pools in the lurch.
What did he do with the loot? The usual: Yachts, private aircraft, and luxury homes. And also the unusual: A castle in Germany.
Indeed, at the top of his game, he was king.
Please welcome Frankel to the Business Blunders Hall Of Shame.
For every Artemis II, there are plenty of failed launches
Don’t Miss These Blunders:
Steal Crypto, Buy Pokémon Technology has infected our economy with unprecedented stupidity
Banking On Epstein The sex trafficker couldn’t have done it without America’s biggest banks. Now Bank of America is paying off his victims.
Back In The Box Renault-Nissan’s fugitive CEO Carlos Ghosn fled Japan in a crate. Now his Beirut refuge is under fire.
The Wizard of Oz Goes to Florida Dr. Mehmet Oz is hunting healthcare fraudsters in the Sunshine State. Why? So they can run for governor or the U.S. Senate?
Trailer Trash Solar A failed auto mechanic blew sunshine at Warren Buffett. Now even his lawyer is headed to prison.
Billionaire Blind Spot A failed entrepreneur fleeced the super rich. His bankruptcy records were public
Homer Goes to Hanford America’s Most Dangerous Nuclear Cleanup Runs Like a Simpsons Episode
Walmart Keeps The Change You thought your tips were going to drivers who dutifully delivered your order. Guess again.
Bombing Iran With Crypto Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao in October. But a sworn U.S. enemy allegedly kept doing business through the sanctioned crypto exchange
Double Duped L Brands founder Les Wexner says he was duped. But Jeffrey Epstein wasn’t the only one accused of molesting fashion models at his companies.
Sultan Of Sleaze The CEO of one of the world’s largest port mangers was sunk by his own send button – exchanging emails with Jeffrey Epstein
An Epstein Valentine Goldman Sachs General Counsel Kathy Ruemmler will eventually resign after her chummy relationship with the world’s most notorious pedophile is exposed
Bad Moon Rising His digital token was supposed to fly to the moon. It landed him in prison.
Party With Mr. Dahmer Spinmeisters should substitute ‘Epstein’ with ‘Dahmer’ to hear how they creepy sound
Red State Ripoff Insurance tycoon Greg Lindberg fleeced conservative retirees. Now he wants a Trump pardon.
Fat Brands’ Debt Buffet Fatburger operator binged on other brands and choked on the tab
Idiot Lights Wall Street lenders didn’t check the dashboard before First Brands blew the engine
The Incredible Shrinking Airline Seat Canada’s WestJet may have just saved the world from the worst trend in commercial air travel
This Is Sandgaard The CEO of Zynex Medical was indicted for health care and securities fraud. It could mark the end of his rock and roll fantasy.
Needless Markup Amazon’s $475 million bet on the Saks-Neiman Marcus merger goes to zero in bankruptcy court
Was Maxwell Smart? Ghislaine Maxwell lived her life between two international crooks: Her father Robert Maxwell and sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein. Some people think they were spies.
Volkswagen Dipsticks German automaker burns trust even faster than oil