As the ties between billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein continue to generate headlines, some experts hope the scrutiny of their relationship will broaden into a larger conversation about the power structures underlying elite philanthropy.
“Hypocrisy is at the core of philanthropy, and we all have to come to terms with that,” Maribel Morey, a historian of U.S. philanthropies, told Devex.
“It’s not usually saints who become industry leaders and who amass significant amounts of wealth,” she said. “The path towards wealth accumulation is fraught from a moral perspective.”