NEW YORK: Warren Buffett has stopped donating money to the Gates Foundation, ending a two-decade philanthropic partnership following revelations about interactions between the Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Buffett said on Tuesday he is donating about $6 billion of Berkshire Hathaway stock, comprising 12 million Class B shares, in his annual mid-year donation to four family foundations overseen by his daughter Susie and sons Howard and Peter.
The announcement by the 95-year-old Berkshire chairman did not mention the Gates Foundation, which has received more than $47 billion of the conglomerate’s stock since Buffett in 2006 made what he called an irrevocable pledge to donate shares throughout his lifetime. Buffett’s donation was more than $4.5 billion last year. “Of course, mortality is unpredictable, but my remaining shares will be donated to the four foundations one way or the other by December 31, 2034,” Buffett said in a statement.
Buffett has said that after his death, his children would oversee a charitable trust containing about 99.5pc of his remaining wealth.
Gates regrets Epstein ties
