Jeffrey Epstein reportedly criticized Bill Gates for being “so cheap” after the tech mogul’s alleged former Russian girlfriend was left in financial distress, reportedly crashing on a friend’s sofa.

This claim surfaced in an email Epstein sent in 2017 to Boris Nikolic, an advisor to Gates, seemingly referencing Russian bridge player Mila Antonova.

Epstein alleged, “She mentioned she was short of funds, unable to buy an air conditioner, and staying on a friend’s couch. She truly needed financial help.”

The convicted sex offender added that he had provided her with some financial assistance.

According to Epstein, Antonova, who was believed to have been involved with Gates around 2010, “had reached out to me a couple of times over the last two months.”

He told Nikolic, “Your buddy Bill is crazy. His former partner can’t afford an air conditioner and can’t manage to travel for bridge tournaments.”

He noted that Antonova said Sharon Osbourne ‘used to arrange’ things for her and that an unnamed lawyer ‘helped her with papers.’

‘She is ok, but broke,’ Epstein said, adding: ‘That story would take Trump off the front pages.’

Jeffrey Epstein accused Bill Gates of being ‘so cheap’ that he left a Russian ex-mistress ‘ Mila Antonova (pictured right) broke’ and with only a friend’s couch to sleep on

In 2017, Epstein (pictured center left) wrote Gates’ (pictured center right) advisor Boris Nikolic (pictured right) that Antonova, who allegedly dated Gates around 2010, ‘had emailed me a couple of time over the past two months’ 

Epstein wraps up the email to Nikolic, who previously served as chief advisor for science and technology to Gates, by laying into the tech mogul again.

‘The richest man in the world is so cheap, his former bridge girl and toy lives on a friend’s sofa. WOWO.’ 

Nikolic allegedly introduced Antonova to Epstein in 2013, with the pedophile paying for her to take a class in software coding. In 2017, Epstein emailed Gates demanding he pay him back for it.  

In 2023, a spokesperson for Gates admitted Epstein, who was known to cultivate friendships with the ultra-wealthy in order to exploit them, had ‘tried unsuccessfully to leverage a past relationship’ to threaten the business magnate into doing his bidding.

At the time of his brief ‘relationship’ with Antonova, who is nearly 30 years his junior, father-of-three Gates was still married to his former wife, Melinda.

There have also been links between Antonova and notorious Kremlin spy Anna Chapman.  

Registered sex offender Epstein wanted Gates to be an ‘anchor donor’ in a multi- billion dollar global charitable fund he planned to set up, to camouflage his sordid private life, and increase his influence.

The pair had more than half a dozen meetings and Gates once flew on Epstein’s private jet, known as the ‘Lolita Express’.

In 2017, Epstein wrote Gates’ advisor Boris Nikolic that Antonova, who allegedly dated Gates around 2010, ‘had emailed me a couple of time over the past two months’

He has since said he regrets meeting with the disgraced billionaire financier, who apparently killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

Gates’s spokeswoman has insisted any meetings were ‘solely for philanthropic purposes’. 

He ultimately declined to join Epstein’s charitable fund, and the project did not go ahead.

The then 53-year-old Gates had first met Antonova, in the somewhat unlikely setting of the North American Bridge Championship tournament in Washington DC in the summer of 2009. 

is a well-known bridge devotee and a regular attendee at the three-times-a-year NABC tournaments.

Antonova, who is now believed to be 42, is also a keen player and has previously claimed that the card game, which she learned while at school in Russia, helped her to focus on her studies.

The Daily Mail has reached out to Gates for further comment. 

The revelations continue a brutal week for Gates, who has faced further lurid accusations regarding links with Epstein since a Friday drop by the Department of Justice. 

A new photo showing Bill Gates and Jeffrey Epstein with friends was released on Friday 

 

Epstein sent himself a lengthy email, apparently in the voice of Gates’ advisor Nikolic, claiming Gates had gotten an STD and that he had asked for antibiotics to slip to Melinda

Another email sent earlier the same day claims Gates had pressured his right-hand-man Nikolic into ‘participating in things that have ranged from the morally inappropriate to the ethically unsound’

A claim by Epstein that Gates slept with Russian girls, got a sexually-transmitted disease and asked for antibiotics to slip to his then-wife Melinda made shock headlines.

The pedophile financier made the astonishing claims about the Microsoft billionaire in emails he wrote and sent to himself on July 18, 2013.

The messages appear to be drafts of a letter written on behalf of Nikolic, around his resignation from the Microsoft billionaire’s charitable foundation. 

Appearing to be written from the point of view of Nikolic, the email offers his resignation, then makes a shocking reference to ’sex with Russian girls’, ‘illicit trysts with married women’ and ‘Adderall for bridge tournaments’. 

‘During the past few weeks I have been caught up in a severe marital dispute between Melinda and Bill,’ the July 18, 2013 email said.

‘From helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with russian girls , to facilictating [sic] his illicit trysts, with married women, to being asked to provide adderall fro [sic] bridge toumamnts [sic].’

The lengthy message lashed out at Gates for allegedly ending his friendship with Nikolic and says: ‘TO add insult to the injury you them [sic] implore me to please delete the emails regarding your std, your request that I provide you antibiotics that you can surreptitiously give to Melinda and the description of your penis.’

Gates has angrily denied allegations in a rare statement to the Daily Mail. His spokesperson said: ‘These claims are absolutely absurd and completely false.

An undated photo released Friday showed Bill Gates posing with a woman whose face had been obscured 

Melinda, pictured in March 2025, divorced Bill in 2021 after 17 years of marriage. She cited his friendship with Epstein and cheating as reasons for the split  

‘The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame.’ 

Gates’ ex-wife Melinda responded to the most recent drop by throwing her former husband to the wolves in a podcast appearance. 

During Tuesday’s episode of NPR’s Wild Card podcast, Melinda said she felt horribly sorry for the victims of Epstein.

‘I think we’re having a reckoning as a society, right? No girl, no girl should ever be put in the situation that they were put in by Epstein and whatever was going on with all of the various people around him,’ she said, shaking her head.

She added: ‘It’s beyond heartbreaking. I remember being those ages those girls were, I remember my daughters being those ages.

‘So, for me, it’s personally hard whenever those details come up, right? Because it brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage.’

She then made a sharp pivot, telling podcast host Rachel Martin that she had nothing to do with what had come to light.

‘I purposely pushed it away and I moved on. I’m in a really unexpected, beautiful place in my life. So whatever questions remain there of what, I don’t [and] can’t even begin to know all of it, those questions are for those people and even my ex-husband,’ she stated. ‘They need to answer those questions, not me.’

Melinda, who has two daughters and a son with Gates, added: ‘And I am so happy to be away from all the muck.’ 

When asked specifically about how the recent details about her ex-husband’s alleged affairs made her feel, she responded: ‘Sad. Just unbelievable sadness. Unbelievable sadness.’

The emails were among the hundreds of thousands of Epstein files published by the Department of Justice on Friday morning.

The release also included multiple new, undated images of Epstein and Gates together in various locations.

Melinda and Gates were married from 1994 to 2021. She cited Gates’s affairs and friendship with Epstein as reasons for the divorce, but has not divulged further details. 

Melinda reportedly hired lawyers to plan the split in 2019, after reports emerged about his repeated meetings with Epstein, contradicting the Microsoft founder’s earlier public denials.

She retained counsel after becoming concerned about her husband’s alleged business dealings with the pedophile financier, The Wall Street Journal reported.