Warren Buffett excluded the Bill and Melinda French Gates Foundation from his annual charitable stock gifts on Tuesday, directing the full donation to four family-linked foundations instead.
According to a Berkshire Hathaway $BRK.B news release, Buffett will convert 8,000 Class A shares into 12 million Class B shares, with 9 million going to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation and 1 million apiece to the Sherwood Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and the Novo Foundation. "My goal is to dispose of all of my Berkshire shares within about eight years," Buffett said in a statement. "I have every hope that the three of them are able to carry out the disposal of my shares by December 31, 2034."
The omission marks a break from a pledge Buffett made roughly two decades ago. A 2006 letter to the Gateses laid out his commitment to deliver annual Berkshire stock gifts to their foundation "throughout my lifetime," so long as at least one founder stayed actively engaged with the organization. Since that pledge, he had transferred more than $43 billion worth of Berkshire stock to the organization, according to CNBC.
The Gates Foundation's ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have been at the center of the dispute. Buffett paused his annual gift to the Gates Foundation pending the outcome of an external review the foundation commissioned from law firm WilmerHale into its historical ties with Epstein. In March, Buffett disclosed that he and Bill Gates had not been in contact "at all since the whole thing was unveiled," and he declined to say more: "Until it gets cleared up ... I just don't think it makes sense to do a lot of talking."
Bill Gates appeared before the House Oversight Committee on June 10, characterizing his decision to associate with Epstein as a "grave error in judgment" and telling lawmakers he had neither witnessed nor taken part in any criminal conduct. Gates told the committee the last time he spoke with Buffett was in January, before Epstein-related documents were released.
Buffett is scheduled to discuss the donations in an appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Wednesday.