In a nutshell: Recently divorced Beak Gates reportedly left the Microsoft lath as the company investigated an thing he had with an employee well-nigh xx years earlier. A spokesperson for the billionaire has acknowledged the affair, claiming it was non related to his "determination to transition off the board."

Gates left the Microsoft lath final twelvemonth subsequently four decades to concentrate on his philanthropic priorities, simply a Wall Street Journal report claims there was more to the story.

The Microsoft board reportedly hired a constabulary house in 2022 to investigate the affair later on an employee alleged in a letter that she had a human relationship with the former CEO over several years. The engineer is said to have asked Melinda French Gates, who was married to Bill Gates at the fourth dimension, to read the alphabetic character, though it's unclear whether she did.

"Microsoft received a business in the latter half of 2022 that Neb Gates sought to initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee in the year 2000," a Microsoft spokesman said. "A committee of the board reviewed the concern, aided by an outside law business firm, to acquit a thorough investigation."

Gates' spokesperson told the WSJ that "There was an thing virtually 20 years ago which concluded amicably." They emphasized that it was in no way related to his conclusion to leave the board, and that "he had expressed an interest in spending more time on his philanthropy starting several years before." Nevertheless, the WSJ writes that some lath members "decided it was no longer suitable" for Gates to remain a manager at the company. He resigned before the probe was complete.

Before this month, Pecker and Melinda Gates announced that they were divorcing subsequently 27 years of marriage. The WSJ reports that Melinda had been meeting with lawyers since 2022 as she planned for the divorce, and that previous revelations of Bill Gates spending time with Jeffery Epstein played a part in her decision.