July 14 (UPI) — Billionaire investor Warren Buffet left the Gates Foundation out of his annual charitable stock gifts and said he would give all his stock for the year to his charities run by his children.
Berkshire Hathaway said that Buffet, 95, will donate 9 million Class B shares of the company to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and 1 million shares each to the Susie Buffet-run Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation and the NoVo Foundation, which was founded by Peter and Jennifer Buffet. “My goal is to dispose of all of my Berkshire shares within about eight years,” Buffett said in a statement announcing the gifts. “As I explained last year, my children are unfortunately growing older. I have every hope that the three of them are able to carry out the disposal of my shares by Dec. 31, 2034.”
In previous years, the Gates Foundation was the largest recipient of his Berkshire donations. Buffett has donated more than $47 billion of Berkshire stock to the Gates foundation. The Wall Street Journal reported that Buffett was waiting for the outcome of a probe into the foundation’s involvement with Jeffrey Epstein, the sex offender who died by suicide while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges.
In March, Buffett told CNBC that he hadn’t spoken to Gates “at all since the whole thing was unveiled.”
Forbes values Buffett’s net worth at $147 billion, making him the 10th wealthiest person in the world.
