Bill Gates left Microsoft over an investigation into his relationship with an employee, according to The Wall Street Journal

Bill Gates left Microsoft’s board of directors in 2020 while an investigation was being conducted into the billionaire’s romantic relationship with a company employee, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. The founder and former head of the US tech giant stepped down as chairman of the board of directors in March 2020 to, the mogul declared, dedicate himself to philanthropy. his position in 2020 while they carried out an investigation into a romantic relationship of the billionaire with a Microsoft employee that was considered inappropriate, “the newspaper reported, citing people close to the matter. It is” an affair almost 20 years ago that ended amicably, “a Gates spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal. According to the spokeswoman, Gates left Microsoft to focus more on his philanthropic organization, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates and his wife Melinda, who co-founded their charity two decades ago to fight poverty and disease in the world, they announced their divorce on May 3 after 27 years of marriage, a Microsoft spokesman told AFP that the company was alerted in the second half of 2019 that “Bill Gates sought to initiate an intimate relationship with a company employee in 2000. A committee of the board of directors reviewed the case, with the help of a law firm external, to carry out a thorough investigation. The employee, an engineer, claimed in a letter that she had been romantically involved with Gates “for years,” The Wall Street Journal reported.According to the newspaper, some members of the board of directors also questioned the links between Gates and financier Jeffrey Epstein, who committed suicide in jail in 2019 while awaiting a trial for alleged trafficking in minors. Gates’ team assured the board that the Microsoft’s founder had met Epstein for “philanthropic reasons” and that he “regretted doing it,” according to the newspaper. Gates, who founded Microsoft in 1975, resigned as CEO of the company in 2000, claiming you wanted to focus on your foundation. He left his full-time position at Microsoft in 2008. His position as a director of the board of directors was the last position that officially linked him to the company.