<SMALL>[[Jeffrey Epstein]] | [[Ghislaine Maxwell]] | [[Chelsea Clinton]] | [[Gateway Computers]] </SMALL> # The Computer Billionaire Who Dated Ghislaine Maxwell ## The Cattle Ranch to Silicon Valley Success Story Theodore William Waitt, born January 18, 1963, in Sioux City, Iowa, represents the classic American entrepreneurial success story with a troubling asterisk: his multi-year romantic relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice who was convicted of sex trafficking minors. Waitt built Gateway from a cattle ranch into a billion-dollar computer empire, became a Forbes 400 billionaire by age 30, lost most of his fortune when the dot-com bubble burst, and reinvented himself as an ocean conservation philanthropist. But his romantic involvement with Maxwell from approximately 2003-2011 raises uncomfortable questions about what he knew and when he knew it. ## Gateway: Building a Computer Empire from Iowa On September 5, 1985, Waitt, his brother Norman Jr., and Mike Hammond started what became Gateway 2000 with a $10,000 loan secured by Waitt's grandmother. The company began on Waitt's father's cattle ranch in Sioux City, selling peripheral computer equipment to Texas Instruments computer owners through mail-order. Waitt was 22 years old and a college dropout—he'd left the University of Iowa's marketing program after becoming fascinated with the direct-sales computer business model. The iconic cow-spotted boxes became Gateway's signature branding, playing on Midwestern values of honesty and stability during an era when computer companies failed constantly. Waitt's contrarian marketing strategy—"Computers from Iowa?"—worked brilliantly, positioning Gateway as the trustworthy alternative to slick Silicon Valley competitors. Gateway's growth was explosive: $400,000 in sales in the final months of 1985, $1 million in 1986, $275 million by 1990, and over $1 billion by 1992. The company went public in 1993, raising $150 million, with the Waitt family retaining 85% ownership. By 1996, Gateway generated over $1 billion in sales per quarter with over 9,000 employees globally. At the peak of the dot-com bubble in 1998-2000, Waitt's personal net worth exceeded $4 billion. Then reality hit. Gateway couldn't compete with Dell's efficiency or Apple's innovation. The company's stock crashed from $80 in early 2000 to $2.10 by March 2003. Waitt personally lost over $7 billion in net worth. He stepped down as CEO in 1999, returned in 2001 during the crisis, and finally left in 2004 after Gateway acquired eMachines. Acer purchased Gateway in 2007 for $710 million—a fraction of its peak value. ## The Ghislaine Maxwell Relationship: Timing and Questions According to court documents and testimony, Waitt began a romantic relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell around 2003-2004, shortly after he'd left Gateway for the first time. Maxwell, daughter of disgraced media tycoon Robert Maxwell, had been Jeffrey Epstein's close associate, girlfriend, and—as later proven in court—accomplice in sex trafficking minors. The relationship lasted approximately seven years, ending in late 2010 or early 2011. During this period, Maxwell helped Waitt obtain and renovate the luxury yacht Plan B, a 240-foot superyacht equipped with a helipad, submarine, gym, and crew of 25. They traveled together to France and Croatia. Maxwell became close to Waitt's four children (aged 6-12 when the relationship began), and according to her legal team, the relationship was "on track for marriage." Maxwell attended Chelsea Clinton's wedding in 2010 as Waitt's guest. The couple had vacationed with Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky in 2009 on the Plan B yacht. These Clinton connections are significant because Waitt donated between $10-25 million to the Clinton Foundation during this period. The relationship ended following what Maxwell's lawyers described as a blackmail attempt by Scott Rothstein, a Miami lawyer who was later convicted of running a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme. According to Maxwell's sentencing memorandum, this "attempted to blackmail" Waitt, and "Maxwell's relationship with Waitt did not survive the ordeal." ## The Critical Timeline Question The most important fact for understanding Waitt's involvement: **Epstein was convicted of procuring an underage girl for prostitution in 2008**, right in the middle of Waitt's relationship with Maxwell. Epstein served 13 months in a Florida jail under an extraordinarily lenient plea deal that protected his co-conspirators—including Maxwell—from federal prosecution. Waitt was dating Maxwell during and after Epstein's conviction. The relationship continued for 2-3 years after Epstein's release from jail. This raises obvious questions: What did Waitt know about Maxwell's role in Epstein's crimes? Did Maxwell's association with a convicted sex offender concern him? Did he ask questions about her relationship with Epstein? There is no public evidence that Waitt knew about Maxwell's criminal activities or that he had any involvement with Epstein's trafficking operation. But the timeline demonstrates that he maintained a romantic relationship with Epstein's closest associate for years after Epstein's conviction became public knowledge. ## Ocean Conservation: Reinvention as Philanthropist After leaving Gateway, Waitt reinvented himself as a philanthropist focused on ocean conservation. The Waitt Foundation, established in 1993, initially focused on domestic violence prevention (run largely by his sister while he was still at Gateway). After his retirement, Waitt redirected the foundation toward marine conservation, investing over $70 million in ocean protection initiatives. The foundation created the Waitt Institute, which partners with island nations on marine spatial planning and sustainable fisheries. Waitt became a founding board member of Oceans 5, a collaboration of ocean funders. In November 2019, the Blue Prosperity Coalition announced a $150 million, ten-year commitment from the Waitt Foundation for ocean conservation. Waitt served as a trustee of the National Geographic Society (becoming its largest living donor) and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, where he donated $20 million in 2008 to establish the Waitt Advanced Biophotonics Center. He served as Salk's Board Chair briefly in 2016-2017. The ocean conservation focus connects directly to Maxwell—she helped install a submarine on the Plan B yacht, which Waitt used for deep-sea diving. After their relationship ended, Maxwell founded the TerraMar Project, an ocean advocacy nonprofit, in 2012. The project folded in July 2019, a week after Epstein's arrest on new federal sex trafficking charges. ## The Current Status and Unanswered Questions Waitt is now married to former model Michele Merkin (his second marriage; his first wife Joan Theresa Peschel bore him four children). He continues his philanthropic work through the Waitt Foundation and serves as president of Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan. His current net worth is estimated at $800-900 million—substantial, but far below his dot-com peak. Maxwell was convicted in December 2021 of sex trafficking minors and related charges, sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. During her trial, Epstein's longtime pilot testified about Maxwell's relationship with Waitt, confirming they were together by 2004 and that Maxwell was involved in decorating and outfitting Waitt's yacht. Maxwell's legal team repeatedly referenced Waitt in sentencing memoranda, portraying the relationship as evidence of her capacity for normal, loving relationships and her desire to be a stepmother to his children. The implication was that Maxwell wasn't simply Epstein's accomplice but a woman seeking conventional family life who got derailed by circumstances. The unanswered questions remain: Did Waitt know about Maxwell's criminal activities? Did he ask about her relationship with Epstein after Epstein's 2008 conviction? Why did he continue the relationship for years after Epstein's crimes became public? What, if anything, did Maxwell tell him about her role in Epstein's operation? There's no evidence Waitt was involved in or aware of criminal activity. But the relationship timeline—beginning around the time Epstein's crimes were being investigated, continuing through Epstein's conviction and imprisonment, and lasting years afterward—demonstrates either remarkable ignorance or troubling acceptance of dating someone closely associated with a convicted sex offender. ## The Bottom Line Ted Waitt built one of the most successful computer companies of the 1990s through unconventional marketing and direct-sales innovation, became a billionaire by 30, lost most of his fortune when Gateway collapsed, and successfully reinvented himself as an ocean conservation philanthropist. His Gateway story is genuinely impressive American entrepreneurship. But his multi-year romantic relationship with Ghislaine Maxwell, continuing well after Jeffrey Epstein's 2008 conviction for sex crimes involving minors, raises questions that remain unanswered. Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking and is serving 20 years in federal prison for crimes committed while she was Epstein's closest associate. The relationship with Waitt occurred during the aftermath of Epstein's first conviction and before Maxwell's eventual arrest and prosecution. Waitt has never publicly commented on the relationship or addressed questions about what he knew regarding Maxwell's activities. The silence is notable given that Maxwell helped him acquire and renovate a yacht, traveled extensively with him, became close to his children, attended high-profile social events as his partner, and by all accounts was on track to become his wife before the relationship ended around 2011. The Waitt story demonstrates how Epstein and Maxwell's network extended into the highest levels of American business and philanthropy, and how wealthy, prominent figures maintained relationships with them even after criminal convictions made the dangers clear. Attended C Clinton's wedding with GMax Maxwell helped Waitt obtain and renovate the luxury yacht _Plan B_, and they traveled on it to France and Croatia before their relationship ended in late 2010 https://www.justice.gov/epstein/files/DataSet%209/EFTA00579359.pdf