▲ Warren Buffett
Warren Buffett (95), the legendary American investor and chairman of the board at Berkshire Hathaway, has paused his annual donation to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the charitable organization founded by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, for the first time in 20 years.
It is reported that Buffett will decide whether to resume his contributions after reviewing the results of an internal investigation currently being conducted by the Gates Foundation into its ties with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on June 29 (local time), citing multiple sources, that Buffett has decided to postpone the donation that he typically makes between June and July.
This marks the first time Buffett has withheld his donation to the Gates Foundation since he began gifting Berkshire Hathaway stock to the organization annually in 2006.
As of last year, the total value of Buffett's donations reached approximately 48 billion dollars (about 74 trillion won).
Buffett is expected to decide by the end of this year, possibly around Thanksgiving, whether to fulfill his commitment to "lifetime giving."
The Gates Foundation has hired a law firm to investigate the relationship between the foundation and Epstein. It appears that Buffett intends to wait for the results of this investigation, which are expected to be released this summer, before proceeding.
Buffett and his associates have reportedly been in contact with the foundation's leadership, including CEO Mark Suzman, to monitor the progress of the investigation regarding Epstein.
Gates has faced significant damage to his reputation due to controversies surrounding his interactions with Epstein.
It has been revealed that Gates met with Epstein several times during his lifetime, and that his associates remained in frequent contact with Epstein until his death in prison in 2019.
The relationship between Buffett and Gates has reportedly cooled since the U.S. Department of Justice released documents related to the Epstein case.
In an interview with CNBC last March, Buffett stated that he had not spoken with Gates since the Epstein case files were made public, adding, "I want to check more related materials before deciding on the donation at the end of June."
The WSJ reported that Gates did not attend the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting this past May for the first time in years.
While he was not explicitly banned from attending, some individuals reportedly advised against it, and Gates was informed that he would not be able to sit in his designated seat alongside Buffett and the Berkshire board members.
However, this decision is not expected to affect Buffett's other philanthropic activities.
Sources anticipate that Buffett will continue his annual donations to his family foundations, including the foundations run by his three children and the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named after his late first wife, as planned.
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
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