Bill and Melinda Gates filed for divorce in Washington

Bill and Melinda Gates filed for divorce in King County, Washington. Wealth will be divided according to the agreement signed by the couple, according to court documents published by the tabloid TMZ website. The details of the agreement are not known, but according to the website, it is clear from the application that they did not have a signed prenuptial agreement. Thus, under Washington law, any property acquired after the wedding is considered common and should be divided equally in the event of a divorce. However, according to lawyers, this does not necessarily mean halving. However, the total value of this property can climb to almost 130 billion dollars. "Gates' property before the wedding was only 6.4 percent of the current property. If this amount were adjusted for inflation, it would mean that Gates increased his wealth by $ 129 billion during his marriage, "said an economist expert. This is another "record" divorce in recent years. When Amazon founder Jeff Bezos divorced in 2019, his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott catapulted it to the world's richest people. However, according to Bloomberg, the settlement of the Gates' property will be much more difficult, as Bezos had most of its assets concentrated in Amazon shares. At Gates, Microsoft shares make up less than a fifth of wealth. The most important part of it is the holding company Cascade Investment, through which it invests in real estate, energy and care services. The billionaire also holds stakes in dozens of publicly traded companies. However, the fate of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is one of the largest philanthropic organizations in the world, attracts the media's attention. Both spouses will continue to work under its leadership, and nothing will change in their roles, according to a statement by representatives of the foundation. The charity, founded in 2000, has already distributed more than $ 50 billion during its tenure, Reuters reports. She is mainly involved in the fight against poverty and disease, and last year she also funded the development of vaccines against covid-19 and research in this area, in which she poured about $ 1.75 billion.