Warren Buffett: Bill Gates’ actions with Epstein ‘distasteful,’ but people make mistakes

Warren Buffett called Bill Gates’ association with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein “distasteful” after the Berkshire Hathaway chairman excluded the Gates Foundation from his sizable annual charitable donations.

“I read a great deal since Jan. 1 in terms of what happened, with Bill and Epstein,” Buffett said in an interview with CNBC’s Becky Quick. “While it’s distasteful, while he made mistakes, I made mistakes, hiring all kinds of people, or choosing friends, and then finding out later that, one way or other, they weren’t what I thought they were. I found nothing in there that was beyond what I could picture myself doing.”

Buffett, who has been friends with Gates for more than three decades, said he extensively reviewed information about Gates’ relationship with Epstein before deciding to overhaul his charitable giving. The 95-year-old Buffett directed all of this year’s donations to four family-linked foundations.

For years, the Gates Foundation was the largest recipient of his annual Berkshire donations. Since 2006, Buffett has donated more than $47 billion worth of Berkshire stock to the philanthropic organization founded by the Microsoft co-founder and his former wife, Melinda Gates.

Buffett said he and Gates remain in contact and recently spent several hours together in Omaha.

“He came by Omaha three weeks ago. I kind of lose track of time, but certainly not three months, and we spent three hours talking together,” Buffett said. “He intends to call me … He already proposed another meeting.”

In a statement to CNBC, Gates said Buffett’s support for his foundation has been “unprecedented,” and it has helped save millions of lives.

“My gratitude to Warren is immeasurable, and I cherish the time we spend together. I hope we have much more of it ahead,” Gates said.

In the hands of Buffett’s children

The Oracle of Omaha said his estate plan should place greater responsibility in the hands of his three children. He said he had gradually prepared them for that role over decades.

“I reevaluated my whole situation,” Buffett said. “What happened was that I gave the Gates Foundation a great deal of money. I thought that was a good decision. I think it was a decent decision, but I did not think my kids were in any way ready to give away vast sums of money.”

“I tell the three children that it is theirs, and it’s their responsibility to get it done well,” he said.

Buffett said in a statement earlier this week that his goal is to dispose of all of his Berkshire shares within about eight years as his children are “unfortunately growing older.”

This year, Buffett is giving the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, named for his late first wife, 9 million Class B shares with a current value of around $4.5 billion. The three foundations run by his children, Susie Buffett’s Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and Peter Buffett’s NoVo Foundation, will each get 1 million Class B shares, worth just under $500 million.

Buffett also said he recently underwent surgery after breaking his leg several weeks ago and is recovering well.

— CNBC’s Alex Crippen contributed reporting.