Bill Gates left Microsoft while under investigation …

The Wall Street Journal published this Sunday that Bill Gates stepped down from Microsoft’s board in 2020 as a romantic relationship investigation was underway. that the billionaire and philanthropist kept with a company employee deemed inappropriate. The report comes after Gates announced his divorce from his wife Melinda after 27 years of relationship.

“Microsoft Corp. board members have ruled that Bill Gates should step down in 2020 as they investigate the billionaire’s romantic relationship with a Microsoft employee deemed inappropriate,” the newspaper reported, citing sources who preferred to remain anonymous.

A Microsoft spokesperson told AFP that the company was alerted in the second half of 2019 that “Bill Gates sought to start an intimate relationship with a company employee in 2000. A board committee reviewed the case, with the help of an outside law firm, to conduct a full investigation. “

The employee, an engineer, claimed in a letter that she had been romantically involved with Gates “for years.”The Wall Street Journal reported. The Microsoft representative assured that the company “provided broad support to the employee who brought the accusation” against Gates throughout the investigation.

For its part, replied a spokesperson for Gates. to the newspaper that the link between Gates and the engineer it was “an adventure almost 20 years ago which ended amicably” and “His decision to gradually leave the board is in no way linked to this issue”.

According to the spokesperson, the tech entrepreneur stepped down from his board of directors in March 2020 to focus on the philanthropic tasks he performs with the foundation he runs with his now ex-wife Melinda.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that some board members questioned Gates’ ties to financier Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for child trafficking.

The Gates team assured the board that the Microsoft founder had met Epstein for “philanthropic reasons” and that he “regretted doing so,” according to the newspaper.

Prior to the publication of the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times had previously reported that Gates had developed “a reputation for questionable behavior in work environments.” and that he sometimes made advances to the women who worked for him at Microsoft and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Gates, who founded Microsoft in 1975, resigned as CEO of the company in 2000, saying he wanted to focus on its foundation, and left his full-time position at Microsoft in 2008. His role as chairman of the board of directors This was the last post that officially linked him to the company.