Invoice Gates faces conduct accusations whereas navigating divorce
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Citing “individuals accustomed to the matter,” the Journal reported Sunday {that a} Microsoft engineer had “alleged in a letter that she had a sexual relationship over years with Mr. Gates.”
“Throughout the probe, some board members determined it was now not appropriate for Mr. Gates to take a seat as a director on the software program firm he began and led for many years,” the Journal reported. “Mr. Gates resigned earlier than the board’s investigation was accomplished.”
The worker was not named within the Journal’s article. CNN has not confirmed the allegations cited by the Journal.
“Microsoft obtained a priority within the latter half of 2019 that Invoice Gates sought to provoke an intimate relationship with an organization worker within the yr 2000,” a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed to CNN Enterprise late Sunday. “A committee of the Board reviewed the priority, aided by an outdoor regulation agency, to conduct an intensive investigation. All through the investigation, Microsoft supplied intensive assist to the worker who raised the priority.”
In an announcement to the Journal, a spokesperson for Gates mentioned, “There was an affair virtually 20 years in the past which ended amicably. Invoice’s determination to transition off the board was on no account associated to this matter. In truth, he had expressed an curiosity in spending extra time on his philanthropy beginning a number of years earlier.”
The spokesperson additionally pointed to a March 2020 assertion concerning his determination to resign from the board.
The Occasions reported, citing “individuals with direct information with overtures,” that “on at the least a number of events, Mr. Gates pursued ladies who labored for him at Microsoft and the Invoice and Melinda Gates Basis.”
The Occasions didn’t cite the names of the individuals concerned.
Gates’ spokesperson instructed the Occasions that, “This can be very disappointing that there have been so many untruths revealed concerning the trigger, the circumstances and the timeline of Invoice Gates’ divorce.”
The spokesperson mentioned that the “declare of mistreatment of staff can be false,” and that “the rumors and hypothesis surrounding Gates’ divorce have gotten more and more absurd and it is unlucky that individuals who have little to no information of the scenario are being characterised as ‘sources.'”
CNN has not confirmed the allegations cited by the Occasions. The Invoice and Melinda Gates Basis’s spokespeople didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Sunday night time.
– Clare Duffy contributed to this report