Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and chairman of its board until 2014, was among the powerful men who spent a meaningful amount of time with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to reporting from The New York Times. Employees of Gates' namesake foundation reportedly also met with Epstein, in multiple visits to the disgraced financier's mansion.

Previously, Gates had told The Wall Street Journal that he didn't have a "business relationship or friendship" with Epstein. "I met him," Gates told the Journal on September 10th. "I didn't have any business relationship or friendship with him. I didn't go to New Mexico or Florida or Palm Beach or any of that. There were people around him who were saying, hey, if you want to raise money for global health and get more philanthropy, he knows a lot of rich people."