Bill Gates is the richest person in the world — but one retired New York hedge-fund mogul thought the software pioneer’s Giving Pledge was “practically worthless.”
Robert W. Wilson, a well-known philanthropist who had given away $600 million of his fortune as of 2013, abruptly turned aside Gate’s 2010 request that he sign the Giving Pledge.
The pledge pushes billionaires to give away a bulk of their fortune while they are alive, or in their will.
Wilson found especially problematic the pledge’s loophole that allowed signers to gift their wealth to a family-controlled foundation.
“And these foundations become, more often than not, bureaucracy-ridden sluggards,” Wilson wrote to Gates in a June 2010 e-mail, a copy of which was obtained by the website BuzzFeed.
“I’m going to stay far away from your effort,” Wilson told Gates in the same e-mail.
Last week, Wilson, 86, took his own life by throwing himself from his luxury Upper West Side high-rise, just a few months after suffering a debilitating stroke.
Wilson. who made his fortune after founding Wilson & Associates, a hedge fund whose specialty was short-selling, was a champion of Catholic schools and environmental causes. MORE
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Well, THAT sure makes me feel better about my pathetic little life, knowing that the wealthiest man on the planet can’t get no respect either.
Nicely done Mr. Wilson. Too bad he felt his time was up.
Hmmm, hyperwealthy limousine libmaggots infighting and offing themselves.
Is this that guy who is in a wheelchair and talks with a computer voice?
Wilson really put Gates in his place, bitch-slapping him out of his liberal idiocy. At least for a moment.
Too bad Wilson died: he could have had an entirely new life as a conservative hero.
Needles’ eye. Camel. Some assembly required.
Now that’s a smug cat eating the canary look and totally denying it if I saw one.
testing, testin