Bill Gates left the Microsoft board of directors in 2020 while investigating the billionaire’s love relationship with a company employee, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday.
The founder and former head of the American tech giant stepped down as chairman of the board in March 2020. “Members of the Board of Directors of Microsoft Corp. decided that Bill Gates should retire in 2020, investigating the billionaire’s love relationship with Microsoft. an employee who was found inappropriate, ”the newspaper said, citing sources close to the lawsuit.
It is “a case almost 20 years ago that ended peacefully,” a spokeswoman for Gates told The Wall Street Journal.
Gates left Microsoft to focus more on his charity, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the spokesman said.
Gates and his wife Melinda, who founded this institution to fight poverty and disease in the world two decades ago, announced their divorce on May 3, after 27 years of marriage.
A Microsoft spokesman told AFP that in the second half of 2019, the company was warned that “Bill Gates tried to have an intimate relationship with a company employee in 2000. The board committee reviewed the case with the assistance of an external law firm. conduct a thorough investigation. “
“The employee, an engineer, said in the letter that she has had a relationship with Gates for years,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
According to the publication, some board members have also questioned the connection between Gates and Jeffrey Epstein. The financier committed suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on child trafficking charges.
Gates’ team assured the board that the Microsoft founder met with Epstein for “charitable reasons” and that he “regrets it,” the newspaper said.
Gates, who founded Microsoft in 1975, stepped down as CEO of the company in 2000, saying he wanted to focus on founding it. In 2008, he left the office entirely. His position as director of the board of directors was the last one to formally link him with the company.
