Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates testified before a committee of the US Congress that he was blackmailed by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to US media.
Epstein had known about Gates's extramarital affairs and used that knowledge as leverage against him, Gates said on Wednesday during his voluntary testimony before the oversight committee of the US House of Representatives.
Gates, 70, said Epstein also tried to force him to resume contact, but that the attempt had failed. "While he may have sought to foster a personal relationship, I was never interested in that and never reciprocated."
In a prepared statement quoted by several US media outlets, Gates said he had met Epstein in 2011 but cut off contact in 2014, after Epstein had initially promised to raise billions of dollars in donations for global health projects - a promise that never materialized.
"If the time I spent with Epstein lent him any credibility, I am deeply sorry," Gates' statement said. The hearing was held behind closed doors and without video recording.
The oversight committee in the US House of Representatives is tasked with investigating the abuse network of Epstein, the financier who died in prison in 2019.
The New York multimillionaire had run an abuse ring that claimed many women and minors as victims. Epstein is said to have personally abused minors over a period of several years.
Gates reportedly acknowledged that meeting Epstein had been "a grave error in judgement." He said he had never witnessed any criminal conduct. "I never went to his island, his ranch, or his Florida home. I have never victimized anyone," he said.
