Amid the divorce of Bill Gates and Melinda Gates, now the manager of the majority of billionaire Bill Gates massive fortune, Michael Larson, has been accused of workplace misconduct. According to a comprehensive investigation by New York Times, Larson, who runs Cascade Investments, had created a "culture of fear" in his workplace where employee abuses had occurred.
A Business Today report said that Larson allegedly showed nude photos of women to colleagues, judged female employees by their attractiveness, made sexually inappropriate comments on several occasions, made racist remarks, and bullied others.
In addition to this, reports state that Larson also threatened to hurt the stock price of a company a female employee said she was joining after leaving Cascade.
For the uninformed, Larson's company manages the fortune of Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda French. Larson invested Gates' money in hotels, stocks, bonds, farmland, and even a bowling alley. This allowed Gates' fortune to soar from less than $10 billion to around $130 billion.
6 people, including 4 Cascade employees, had complained to Gates about Larson's behaviour. According to the New York Times report, many complained about the same to Melinda too.
Larson's spokesperson, responding to this, said, "During his tenure, Mr. Larson has managed over 380 people, and there have been fewer than five complaints related to him in total. Any complaint was investigated and treated seriously and fully examined, and none merited Mr. Larson's dismissal."
Meanwhile, Gates' spokesperson said, "BMGI takes all complaints seriously and seeks to address them effectively to guarantee a safe and respectful workplace. BMGI does not tolerate inappropriate behavior," adding that "any issue raised over the company's history has been taken seriously and resolved appropriately."
Melinda's spokesperson said, "Melinda unequivocally condemns disrespectful and inappropriate conduct in the workplace. She was unaware of most of these allegations given her lack of ownership of and control over BMGI."
Larson also said, "Calling BMGI a toxic work environment is unfair to the 160 professionals who make up our team and our culture."
