Controversy after controversy appears to be striking Bill Gates following the announcement of his divorce. From his links to disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein to accusations of infidelity, Gates has been in the limelight for all the wrong reasons of late. However, the latest charge concerns not him but the man he trusted with his considerable fortune: Michael Larson.
Larsen is credited with investing Gates wealth, helping to grow his net wealth to over $130 billion. Now, a New York Times report says several employees at the firm Larson worked at have accused the 61-year-old of sexual harassment at the workplace.
The report says ten former employees of Cascade Investment accused Larson of a “pattern of workplace misconduct” which included showing nude photographs of women to colleagues, judging female employees over their attractiveness, making sexually inappropriate and racist remarks and bullying. The report says at least six people complained to Gates about Larson, and that Cascade made payments to at least seven people not to speak about their time at the firm. It says, however, that Larson led a “culture of fear” within the company due to the perception that he had Gates support.
A spokesperson for Larson denied some instances of misconduct, saying he had managed over 380 people and that there were fewer than five complaints related to him in total.
Spokespersons for Bill Gates and for his former wife Melinda Gates had slightly different takes in their responses to the NYT’s questions on the culture at Cascades’s and at the Bill and Melinda Gates Investments. Cascade handled not just Gates personal finances but also those of the BMGI. While Bill Gates spokesperson said BMGI took all complaints seriously and said that calling BMGI a toxic work environment was “unfair to the 160 professionals who make up our team and our culture, a spokesperson for French Gates said she was unaware of most of the allegations due to her “lack of ownership and control over BMGI”.
One reason attributed for French Gates decision to split from Bill was his association with Epstein, who he visited several times between 2011 and 2013. Another was that Bill himself was found guilty of having an affair with a Microsoft employee, something he admitted to a company probe. Gates left the board of Microsoft at around the same time as the probe.
The BMGI endowment was worth nearly $50 billion by December 2020.