Convicted sex offender and billionaire Jeffrey Epstein once seemed threatening Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates about a alleged affair with a Russian bridge playeraccording to the Wall Street Journal.

The publication reported that Epstein found out that Gates was having an alleged affair with a woman named Mila Antonova when she was in her 20s.

Gates met Antonova around 2010. Three years later, Epstein met her and eventually paid for her to attend software programming school, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Epstein reportedly emailed Gates in 2017, demanding a refund for the course. Epstein wrote the email after failing to persuade Gates to contribute to a multi-billion dollar charity fund he had been trying to start with JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM, the publication reported. Sources told the Wall Street Journal that the implication behind the news was that Epstein could expose the affair if Gates did not keep the two men connected.

“Gates only met with Epstein for philanthropic reasons. After repeatedly failing to pull Gates beyond these matters, Epstein tried unsuccessfully to use a previous relationship to threaten Gates,” a spokeswoman for Gates told the newspaper.

“I had no idea he was a criminal or had any ulterior motives,” Antonova said of Epstein in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “I just thought he was a successful businessman and wanted to help.”

“I’m disgusted with Epstein and what he did,” she added.

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According to the report, Gates learned to play bridge from his parents and later played with Antonova.

in one Video In a 2010 post, Antonova spoke of meeting and playing against Gates in a bridge tournament. “I didn’t hit him, but I tried to kick him with my leg,” she said in the video.

Epstein is known to have sought celebrity connections…