Warren Buffett postponed his annual donation to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation because the foundation is still reviewing its ties to Jeffrey Epstein. Not before the donation. During. The foundation has accepted Buffett's money for years while apparently operating without a functional background check department.
The Gates Foundation met with Epstein multiple times after his 2008 conviction. They knew. Everyone knew. But the meetings continued because Epstein supposedly had connections to wealthy donors. The foundation that already had Warren Buffett's billions needed Jeffrey Epstein's Rolodex. Makes perfect sense if you're f*cking stupid.
Buffett pledged roughly 99% of his wealth to philanthropy. He picks the Gates Foundation as his vehicle. The foundation then spends years courting a convicted sex offender for fundraising purposes. At no point did anyone suggest this might complicate future donations from the guy who invented value investing by reading financial statements. They thought he'd just keep auto-depositing billions while they held strategy sessions with a pedophile.
The review is ongoing. They're still figuring out if associating with Epstein was problematic. It's been five years since he died in prison. The foundation needs more time. Perhaps they're waiting for a control group to emerge.
Retail traders will read this headline and somehow decide it's bullish for Microsoft. Buffett delays Gates Foundation donation, must mean tech is undervalued. They'll buy weekly calls and lose everything by Friday. The foundation will eventually release a statement saying they've learned from this experience and implemented new protocols. Buffett will resume donations. The stock market will remain completely unaffected because none of this ever mattered.
But at least the due diligence finally kicked in after only several billion dollars and one international child trafficking scandal.
Photo by History in HD on Unsplash
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