Bill and Melinda Gates start dividing billions of dollars in property

According to media reports, the block of shares includes securities of the Canadian National Railroad Company ($ 1.5 billion) and shares of the largest auto dealer in the United States Autonation ($ 300 million).

“All securities were transferred to Melinda Gates by the Cascade Investment holding. It was created by Bill Gates using revenues from Microsoft", - reports the TV channel Rain.

A few days earlier, the media reported that Melinda Gates had filed a petition for divorce. According to her, the marriage with Bill is "irretrievably ruined". On May 3, Bill Gates confirmed the divorce from Melinda after 27 years of marriage.

According to the billionaire, despite the separation, the ex-spouses will continue to work together on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Since its inception, the organization has received over $ 50 billion in donations. Through the fund, hundreds of millions of dollars have been allocated to develop a coronavirus vaccine during the pandemic. At the same time, Gates still has only 1.37% of shares of Microsoft, from the board of which he left last year to fight COVID-19. But even this small fraction is worth $ 26 billion.

The couple now lives in Washington DC. Under state law, all property acquired during marriage is considered to be owned by both partners. In this case, it is not necessary that the entire state of the Gates was divided exactly in half.

It is possible that some of the amounts will be transferred non-publicly, based on the private contracts between the spouses, however, the data included in the official reporting of the companies owned by them is not secret.

According to Bloomberg, Gates is one of the four richest people in the world, and his fortune is more than $ 145 billion.