evidence: A leaked email obtained by BuzzFeed News also suggests that Epstein separately pursued ties with Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates. [...] Gates, who was chairman of Microsoft until 2014, faced questions about his ties to Epstein last month after his former science adviser, Boris Nikolic, was named by Epstein as a backup executor for his will, signed two days before he killed himself in a federal detention center in Manhattan. Also last month, CNBC reported that Gates held a meeting in 2013 with Epstein to discuss ways to increase philanthropic giving. "Epstein was introduced to Bill Gates as someone who was interested in helping grow philanthropy," a spokesperson for Gates told BuzzFeed News by email. "Although Epstein pursued Bill Gates aggressively, any account of a business partnership or personal relationship between the two is simply not true. And any claim that Epstein directed any programmatic or personal grantmaking for Bill Gates is completely false."