Bill Gates is seen watching women’s Olympic gymnastics as new book details his devastating links to Jeffery Epstein

Bill Gates was spotted cheering on the US team at the women’s Olympic gymnastics trials when a new book surfaces detailing his ties to Jeffery Epstein.

The 68-year-old Microsoft founder was spotted on Tuesday wearing a black T-shirt and a navy and red American baseball cap as he watched intently the women’s gymnastics final at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Simone Biles and Sunisa Lee led the U.S. team to its first Olympic gold medal in artistic gymnastics since 2016. The Americans easily defeated their rivals.

In the new biography, Billionaire, nerd, savior, king: Bill Gates and his quest to shape our worldNew York Times Journalist Anupreeta Das writes that Gates was once the “brightest star” in Epstein’s circle, but became a target of the late pedophile after their short-lived partnership fell apart.

Epstein had his eye on Gates in 2010, when he and fellow billionaire Warren Buffett launched The Giving Pledge, a charity campaign in which they promised to donate 99 percent of their wealth.

For Epstein, their charitable initiative was a potential new “way to make money” and rehabilitate his image, the book says.

Epstein was allegedly able to use this to launder his reputation after he was convicted in 2008 of soliciting underage girls. He was briefly jailed and registered as a sex offender, the book alleges.

In the book, which will be released on August 13, Das writes that Epstein then “began digging a tunnel into Gates’ sphere of influence,” with spectacular results.

The two men became friends while working on a health fund for billionaires, with Gates even calling Epstein “my buddy.”

Epstein’s extravagant lifestyle was an “adventure” for the nerdy and married Gates, Das writes.

Emails between the two men even mentioned Gates visiting one of Epstein’s homes for “Big Macs,” leading some to believe it involved young girls.

Gates denies most of the allegations in the book, saying Das relied “almost exclusively on second- and third-hand hearsay and anonymous sources.”

In a statement to DailyMail.com, a Gates spokesperson added: “The book contains highly sensational allegations and outright lies that ignore the actual documented facts that our office has repeatedly provided to the author.

“Mr. Gates has previously expressed his deep regret that he ever spoke to Epstein, with whom he discussed only philanthropy.”

But Das’ book sheds new light on his relationship with Epstein, which allegedly cost him his marriage to Melinda French Gates. The couple split in 2021.

Melinda met Epstein only once, in 2013, and told her then-husband he was “evil personified.” But Gates continued to meet with him for some inexplicable reason.

While the world saw the 2010 Giving Pledge as an extraordinary gesture from the world’s two richest men, Epstein simply saw it as another lucrative opportunity.

Das, 46, writes that Epstein saw that much of Buffett’s money would be distributed through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and “began to dig a tunnel into (Gates’) sphere of influence.”

By August 2010, 40 billionaires had signed the Giving Pledge, and many asked Gates for advice on how to give away their money.

They had no experience setting up their own foundations, while Gates did.

Das writes: ‘Of all the stars that graced Epstein’s dark universe, Gates was the brightest.’

Their first meeting was in the summer of 2011, after Epstein proposed to Gates a billionaire health fund.

As talks progressed, Epstein secured JP Morgan to manage a “very senior” group of donors, each worth at least $100 million.

According to reports at the time, Gates flew on Epstein’s plane and had at least six meetings with him, including dinners at the pedophile’s New York home.

Gates told a colleague in 2011 that Epstein’s “lifestyle is very different and intriguing, although it wouldn’t work for me.”

One of Epstein’s victims, a Polish model, met Gates at his Microsoft office in Seattle and even posed for a photo with him.

The woman, who was in her 20s at the time, said she remembered people looking at her as if to ask, “What is she doing there?”

According to Das, Epstein was an “adventure” for Gates and at least once called him “my buddy.”

In an ominous passage, Das writes that Gates “chose not to listen” to warnings about Epstein because the pedophile “could offer him something that would allow him to put his image aside.”

Epstein tried for months to get the fund off the ground, but ultimately nothing came of it.

The last known contact between Gates and Epstein was in 2014, and their friendship likely would not have become public had Epstein not been arrested in 2019.

One of the most embarrassing events of Gates’ friendship with Epstein was his affair with Mila Antonova, a Russian woman he met at a bridge tournament.

Epstein also met Antonova, paid for her to enroll in a software programming course and let her stay in one of his New York apartments.

It is alleged that Epstein emailed Gates in 2017 asking for a refund of the course fees.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the tone of the report was that Epstein knew about the affair and could bring it to light. It was apparent retaliation for his failure to participate in his health insurance.

In the book, Das criticizes the “Gates media machine” for the way it handled the crisis.

On Tuesday, Gates and his philanthropic girlfriend Paula Hurd, the former wife of former Oracle CEO Mark Hurd, watched as the Americans celebrated their gold medal by grabbing an American flag, jumping up and down and taking time to pose for photos with fans.

The team ran onto the field and couldn’t contain their excitement, moving to different spots on the stage to give the fans a chance to see them.

With Biles at her best, the Americans scored a total of 171.296, well ahead of Italy and Brazil. It capped a year-long streak that has seen Biles cement her reputation as the best ever in her sport and one of the best in Olympic history.

The outcome – the Americans on top while the rest of the world looked up – was not in doubt from the moment Jordan Chiles opened the evening with her double twist from the Yurchenko.