Bill Gates in shock: His youngest daughter is entangled in a case carrying up to 20 years in prison

Bill Gates and his ex-wife Melinda French Gates have three children: Jennifer Katharine, Rory John, and Phoebe Adele. Phoebe Adele Gates (23), the youngest daughter of the technology billionaire, has consistently emphasized over the years that the startup she founded, Phia, would succeed on its own merits and "regardless of connections or her family name." However, this ambition is now facing its most difficult legal obstacle, as the company she owns is accused of taking commissions on online sales it did not generate — a practice defined in the US as serious federal fraud.

Phia operates as a browser extension used as a "personal shopping assistant" to find deals and discounts on clothing and fashion accessories. When a user purchases a product through the extension, the company receives a commission from the retailer. However, a Bloomberg investigation revealed that the company used a method known as Cookie stuffing — automatically planting tracking cookies in the background when a purchase is made, while claiming commissions on sales that involved no real user clicks and even overwriting legitimate referrals from other marketers.

Initially, the company claimed it was a "technical glitch" that was resolved within 24 hours of the initial report. However, internal Slack messages revealed by Bloomberg paint a completely different picture of intentionality. In a message from December 18, Gates herself asked:

"Can you confirm that the auto-open for cookie stuffing is active on all sites with a coupon to ensure we get the commission?"

In another message, her co-founder, Sophia Kiani, wrote: "Anything that can be done to keep dropping those cookies would be amazing, thanks" — this was after an engineer at the company admitted and warned her that the move might constitute a violation of compliance rules.

The company's financial data confirms the reports: following the exposure of the affair and the removal of the automatic component, Phia's daily revenue plummeted from $80,000 to a range of only $10,000 to $28,000. Last June, the cookie stuffing method was responsible for about 51% of the total sales for which the company claimed a commission.

Legal experts in the US note that Cookie stuffing-type frauds are judged in federal courts under Wire Fraud statutes. Attorney Ariel Gibner noted that in such cases, the maximum penalty under the law could reach up to 20 years in prison, along with heavy fines and damages. A legal precedent in the field has already been set: in 2014, Shawn Hogan, an affiliate marketer for eBay, was sentenced to 5 months in prison after being convicted of similar fraud totaling $28 million. A sharp irony is noted in the fact that eBay was among the investors in Gates' company, Phia.

Following the exposure, a number of companies and retailers have already announced the termination of their engagement with Phoebe Gates' startup, and in the US, it is estimated that further lawsuits against the company are only a matter of time. On behalf of Phia, it was stated in response that they "will learn from the case and continue to work for an optimal shopping experience for users."