The divorce cost Billy at least $8 billion. When it was announced after it was revealed that Bill was on THE plane, I thought it was probably that–the reason they got divorced. But, there was always some doubt, maybe it was coincidence, maybe it was just the straw on the camel’s back, and it’s more that Bill is generally a shitty person, just like every other billionaire. The more that comes out, the more it’s obvious this was more than a single straw. She didn’t know how far he went, she was blind-sided. I can only imagine what that argument and following negotiation was like, and what she knows, that she signed an NDA to never reveal in exchange for the money.
In the end, all billionaires are bad, even Melinda. She took the payout to shut up. She’s “using it for good”, but that’s as much bullshit as it was when she was with Bill.
NDAs to hide crimes are illegal and unenforceable.
They’re literally extortion.
Would you gamble legality over the power these people have, though? Laws don’t really work for these people. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if her life had been threatened if she revealed anything. Maybe not by Bill directly, but by one from their in-crowd at least.
These people have “fixers”. They’re probably on the books as something like “security consultant.” Possibly at Microsoft itself. I’ve seen people at other companies who have had to deal with this kind of thing for speaking up. These people are literally paid bully threatening assholes with a company’s tech backing for cyberstalking and the lawyers on retainer to back them up. Wouldn’t surprise me if Bill would sick such a person on his wife.
Microsoft contracts with the Pinkertons for private security.
Yes - those Pinkersons.
She took the payout to shut up. She’s “using it for good”, but that’s as much bullshit as it was when she was with Bill.
I feel like I’m a moral person, but also that $8 billion is a lot of money
Also, the choice probably isn’t “be poor or rich,” but rather ”be dead or rich.”
No one should ever buy into the “billionaire using their wealth for good” propaganda.
By nature of them hoarding their immense wealth, they are stealing necessary resources and money from the working class they exploit, that would render their charity work completely unnecessary.
It is the essence of the breadcrumbs example in action. They eat a colossal buffet, give breadcrumbs to the starving masses, and demand to be treated like heroes for it.
There is one notable exception: Mackenzie Scott (Bezos’ ex wife)
Look up Yield Giving. She’s trying, successfully, to be a good person.
Stealing from the poor to give to the poor.
I mean, it’s really more like he paid someone that figured it out and had a moral compass once it affected her, instead of a public, fuck-everyone-up lawsuit. Small price to pay, really.
Ah, come on! Who hasn’t slipped antibiotics to their wife to cure the STD you gave her after shagging Russian hookers? Can happen to anyone!
hookers
You mean sex slaves…
Yeah, filthy rich people aren’t allowed to have a little fun anymore?
It’s hookers only if they come from the Hook part of the New Zealand.
.
.
And also when they are 18.
The weirdest part for me is that he’s incapable of slipping his wife antibiotics. I get that you’re rich enough to never need to, but do you really never make her a cup of tea or anything?
“Honey, let me make you a cup of tea 3 times a day on those exact hours for 2 weeks”…
There are better antibiotics, which work with less frequent doses, but they’re only given out when medically necessary. I assume having bill gates’ wealth (and control of a whole bunch of anti malaria initiatives) means you have access to the kind of antibiotic you choose, you can even justify it by saying that you’re bill gates and you have a sixty hour workweek with the foundation, even in retirement, and you simply cannot take more than two days off, but antibiotics make you feel too weird to work, if you want.
I read that he “surreptitiously” gave them to her, which tonme implied some kind of sneaking. On the other hand, I’m confident she was clearly aware of everything but never went public because then they lose all that money.
Yeah I cannot really say that the things in the files are true, but it does seem very likely he did bad illegal things. What exactly? We may never know.
