Mila Antonova was an associate of the disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, documents have suggested

A Russian cards player who allegedly had an affair with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates several years ago had links to Anna Chapman, a supposed Kremlin spy who was arrested on espionage charges in the United States in 2010, according to a report by UK newspaper the Daily Mail on Friday.

Mila Antonova - a bridge player who multiple media reports this week claim had an affair with Gates starting in 2009 - was captured in a newly unearthed photograph walking alongside Chapman in New York City. The picture, which is believed to have been taken in 2009 or 2010, around the same time as Gates' alleged trysts with the decades-younger Antonova, the newspaper claims.

The report adds that Antonova was an "associate and financial beneficiary of the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein." Details as to the relationship between Antonova and Chapman, the daughter of a former KGB officer and who was deported from the US, remain unknown.

The alleged affair between Gates and Antonova came to light this week following a leak of Epstein's records to the Wall Street Journal. The Daily Mail states that there is no suggestion of wrong-doing by Antonova and that attempts to seek clarification on the issue from Gates' representatives this week have been unsuccessful.

The emergence of the photograph comes days after reporting which suggested that Epstein had made threats to expose Gates' alleged affair with Antonova, which is said to have occurred soon after the pair met at a bridge tournament in Washington, DC in 2009.

In 2017, years after Gates and Antonova had ended their alleged affair, Epstein emailed Gates asking to be reimbursed for school fees that Epstein had paid for Antonova to attend a computer programming course, the Wall Street Journal reported citing documents the publication viewed.

The WSJ added that "the tone of the message was that Epstein knew about the affair and could expose it," and that it came after Gates refused an Epstein request to join a financial venture he was involved in.

Chapman pleaded guilty to US charges of conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent in 2010 and was deported to Russian that same year as part of a prisoner exchange deal between Washington and Moscow, along with nine other Russian nationals who had also been accused by US authorities of espionage.

Antonova, who is believed to be 39, currently resides in California.

(RT.com)