The Microsoft co-founder is among prominent figures named in documents released by the US Justice Department detailing Epstein’s network of relationships, financial dealings and personal associations.

At a town hall meeting on Tuesday with staff at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a recording of which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Gates expressed regret that his relationship with Epstein had negatively impacted the foundation’s work.

“It was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein,” Gates said, acknowledging that he had also introduced foundation executives to the financier.

“I apologise to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made,” he added.

In a draft email included in the Justice Department documents, Epstein alleged that Gates engaged in extramarital affairs. The message claimed their relationship ranged from “helping Bill to get drugs, in order to deal with consequences of sex with Russian girls, to facilitating his illicit trysts with married women.”

Gates, 70, told staff he had two affairs.

“I did have affairs, one with a Russian bridge player who met me at bridge events, and one with a Russian nuclear physicist whom I met through business activities,” he said.

However, he firmly denied any involvement with Epstein’s victims. Epstein died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges involving underage girls.

“I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit,” Gates told the town hall.

He said his association with Epstein began in 2011, three years after the financier pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution. Gates acknowledged that his then-wife, Melinda French Gates, raised concerns about Epstein as early as 2013, but he continued the relationship for at least another year.

“Knowing what I know now makes it a hundred times worse in terms of not only his crimes in the past, but now it’s clear there was ongoing bad behaviour,” Gates said.

The Gates Foundation did not immediately respond to requests for comment on his remarks.