Former girlfriend Mila Antonova appears to have connections to a Kremlin intelligence agent
- The Microsoft tycoon’s links to Epstein are troubling enough
- But now our investigation asks: Was he drawn into the scandal over Moscow’s bid to infiltrate the rich and powerful in the West?
Two young women stride along a New York street, barely breaking step to flash smiles at the camera. One of them is slightly out of focus but her face – and the face of her friend – is unmistakable. Chillingly so.
The woman on the right is Russian bridge player Mila Antonova, the woman alleged this week to have been the former lover of billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates – as well as an associate and financial beneficiary of the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
What makes this photograph sensational, however, is the presence of the flame-haired woman on the left. She is none other than notorious Moscow spy Anna Chapman.
This week, a world exclusive investigation by the Daily Mail has uncovered a potentially disturbing and unexplained link between Gates’ erstwhile Russian ‘lover’ and Kremlin spook Chapman. While there is no evidence of any wrongdoing on Antonova’s part, it seems to be a connection which raises serious questions for Gates and, of course, for the California-based Russian herself.
Despite repeated approaches this week, it’s still not known whether the 67-year-old Microsoft boss had any knowledge of a potential link between Antonova and Chapman, the daughter of a former KGB officer.
Last week, however, his spokeswoman admitted that paedophile Epstein, who was known to cultivate friendships with the ultra-wealthy in order to exploit them, had ‘tried unsuccessfully to leverage a past relationship’ to threaten Gates into doing his bidding.
At the time of his brief ‘relationship’ with Antonova, who is nearly 30 years his junior, father-of-three Gates was still married to his wife Melinda.
Registered sex offender Epstein wanted Gates to become an ‘anchor donor’ in a multi-billion dollar global charitable fund which he planned to set up, to camouflage his sordid private life, and increase his influence.
The pair had more than half a dozen meetings and Gates once flew on Epstein’s private jet, known as the ‘Lolita Express’. He has since said he regrets meeting with the disgraced financier who apparently killed himself in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
His spokeswoman has insisted any meetings were ‘solely for philanthropic purposes’. Gates ultimately declined to join Epstein’s charitable fund and the project did not go ahead.
Even so, the question remains; if Epstein knew about the alleged affair – and later made sure Gates knew he knew – did he also know of Antonova’s apparent links to Chapman?
Certainly, a relationship between Gates, one of the most influential businessmen on the planet, and a woman who appears to have connections to a Kremlin intelligence agent is troubling.
Chapman, 41, was among a ring of Russian spies, all carrying out long-term, deep-cover assignments across the US. She moved to New York in 2009 from the UK where she had been issued with a UK passport after marrying a British man.
The FBI finally swooped on her and other Russian SVR (formerly KGB) intelligence agents in June 2010, after this photograph was taken in Manhattan. It captures a smug-looking Chapman gesturing with her hand towards the former Art Deco office block, a stone’s throw from Wall Street, where she kept a luxury two-bed apartment.
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Antonova also said that she came to New York in 2006 – although she didn’t say why or how – barely speaking English – and had supported herself when she arrived.
Little is known about her early life in Russia. She attended university between 2000 and 2005 and studied at the Togliatti Institute of Management on the banks of the river Volga in the Samara region, south-east of Moscow.
The institution claims its mission is to train students who have a ‘heightened sense of responsibility to their people and the state for the worthy future of the country’.
The Mail has also discovered that before her alleged affair with Gates, she had already forged an association with another wealthy, successful older man; award-winning film director Chad Gracia whose debut film, The Russian Woodpecker, won a prize in 2015 at the world-famous Sundance Film Festival.
In June 2009, a month before Antonova met Bill Gates, Gracia posted photographs on his Facebook page of Antonova in wetsuit, standing on Brighton Beach, a predominantly Russian enclave of New York.
Undated, posed professional photographs from a wedding in Brooklyn also include shots of Antonova sitting on Gracia’s knee, his arm around her waist. They appear in the background of another shot of the entire wedding party taken during the evening reception. Antonova appears to be on Gracia’s knee again. Ms Antonova and Mr Gracia were registered as living at the same address in New York and worked for the same company, public records show.
Mr Gracia was the founder of Tipzu, a company which allowed people to launch and manage e-commerce sites based on their hobbies or interests.
According to Ms Antonova’s LinkedIn profile, she was a bookkeeper there in 2008.
The company was based at a luxury apartment in Manhattan and Ms Antonova also lived at the same address, public records show.
Another old address for Ms Antonova was a Manhattan apartment which now costs $11,500 a month to rent.
It is not known how long Gates’ alleged affair with Antonova lasted. It came to light following a leak of records to the Wall Street Journal..
Officials unravelling his complex finances and sex trafficking ring are focusing on wealthy individuals with whom the disgraced financier may have done business.
According to the WSJ, Epstein met Antonova in 2013 when she was looking for funding to start an online business teaching people how to play bridge. Documents seen by the WSJ are said to reveal they were introduced by Croatian-born Boris Nikolic, a Gates confidant and top science adviser.
They met at Epstein’s townhouse in November 2013 where Antonova set out her proposal, asking for $500,000 for her ‘BridgePlanet’ project. Documents seen by the WSJ show that Epstein gave feedback and in November 9, Antonova emailed him to thank him for the meeting. Ultimately he didn’t invest.
But the following year, in November 2014, Antonova stayed briefly at a New York apartment provided by Epstein. Last week she told the WSJ that she ‘didn’t interact with him or with anyone else while there.’
She added: ‘I had no idea that he was a criminal or had any ulterior motive. I just thought he was a successful businessman and wanted to help. I am disgusted with Epstein and what he did.’
After failing to secure funding for her BridgePlanet project, she said she decided to become a software programmer and asked several people, including Epstein, to lend her money for a US programming boot camp called Hack Reactor.
‘Epstein agreed to pay and he paid directly to the school,’ she told the WSJ. ‘Nothing was exchanged. I don’t know why he did that. When I asked, he said something like, he was wealthy and wanted to help people when he could.’
In 2017, years after Gates’ alleged relationship with Antonova had ended, Epstein allegedly emailed Gates asking him to reimburse him for the cost of her programming school fees.
Given that both men were billionaires, the sum involved was immaterial. According to the WSJ, ‘the tone of the message was that Epstein knew about the affair and could expose it.’
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