Women who have interviewed for jobs in Bill Gates's private office said they were asked sexually inappropriate questions, including if they've had affairs, watched pornography, or ever "danced for dollars."
Several women told the Wall Street Journal about the intrusive questions from a security firm that Gates's office uses in the hiring process. Women also reported being asked about whether they have nude photographs on their phones or ever received a sexually transmitted disease. The security firm, Concentric Advisors, said the questions were intended to evaluate a candidate's potential for being blackmailed.
Gates's office claimed to not know about the lines of questioning from its security firm. "This line of questioning would be unacceptable and a violation of Gates Ventures’ agreement with the contractor," a spokeswoman said.
Gates himself has had an affair, and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein reportedly attempted to blackmail the billionaire over the dalliance.
The report comes a week after Gates met with Chinese president Xi Jinping and unveiled a $50 million partnership with a Chinese Communist Party-controlled university, which performs research for the military.
The partnership will fund research at Tsinghua University, which holds "secret-level security credentials" for classified military research, trains students in China's nuclear weapons program, and has allegedly conducted cyberattacks on behalf of the Chinese government, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
Xi and Gates met last week, a day after the donation was announced. The Chinese president called Gates "an old friend."