Reports: Bill Gates leaves Microsoft’s board of directors amid an investigation into a previous alleged relationship with an employee!

Microsoft board members have reportedly decided Bill Gates needs to step down from the board in 2020 as they pursue an investigation into the billionaire’s previous alleged affair with an employee of the company.

People familiar with the matter said that board members in charge of the matter hired a law firm to conduct an investigation in late 2019, after a Microsoft engineer claimed in a letter that she had had a sexual relationship with Gates for years.

During the investigation, some board members decided that it was no longer appropriate for Gates to take the position of director at the software company that he founded and led for decades, according to reports. Another person familiar with the matter said Gates resigned before the board investigation was completed and before the board made a formal decision on the matter.

A Microsoft spokesman said: “Microsoft received a worrying order in the latter half of 2019, that Bill Gates sought to initiate an intimate relationship with one of the company’s employees in 2000. A board committee reviewed this concern, with the help of an external law firm to conduct a thorough investigation. The investigation, Microsoft provided extensive support to the employee, which raised concern. ”
A spokesperson for Gates told the Wall Street Journal that the billionaire had an affair “nearly 20 years ago,” but indicated that it ended amicably, and that Gates’s decision to leave Microsoft’s board of directors “was not related in any way to this matter.” .

The board investigation report is not the first story of suspicious behavior by Gates. In 2019, The New York Times reported the billionaire’s affair with Jeffrey Epstein – who had faced charges of sex trafficking and exploitation of underage girls.

Gates is said to have met Epstein for the first time in 2011 at his Manhattan home, and then met several times between 2011 and 2013.

Melinda French Gates, who plans to depose the co-founder of Microsoft after 27 years of marriage, expressed her discomfort with her husband spending time with the sexual abuser. According to the Daily Beast, Melinda told her friends that she did not want to do anything with Epstein after her first encounter with him, and that Gates’ friendship with him still haunted her. The Times reported that Melinda was unhappy when Gates’ relationship with Epstein became public in 2019.

It should be noted that Gates resigned from Microsoft’s board of directors in March 2020, three months after his re-election to the position. In his announcement, the billionaire said he wanted to focus on his philanthropy and would continue to work as a technical advisor to the CEO.

Earlier this month, Gates and his wife Melinda issued a joint statement on Twitter, announcing their separation after 27 years of marriage. In the statement, the couple said they no longer believed they could “develop together as a married couple in the next stage of life together”.

Source: Forbes + Wall Street Journal