Gates accused of 'predatory behaviour'

Microsoft's chairman and CEO, Bill Gates, was the central instigator of anti-monopolistic practices against its competitors.

This is the latest allegation by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) as evidence to support its anti-trust case against the software giant. In reply to a request for the case to be dropped, the government accused Microsoft of a strategy of denial. The DoJ claimed Microsoft had illegally pressurised Apple and Intel as part of a plan to expand its empire.

It also claimed Gates had an 'astonishing lack of recall' when faced with his own documents. In the statement the DoJ said Gates "who is placed at the centre of key events by numerous documents, displayed a particular failure of recollection at his deposition."

It alleges that "executives who are stated to be the author of documents claim not to remember writing them; executives who are the stated recipients of documents claim not to remember receiving them and both authors and recipients claim not to know what the documents mean."

However, Microsoft denied the claims, condemning the DoJ for "resorting to this kind of name-calling." Defending Gates' alleged inability to remember specific events, a Microsoft spokesman claimed Gates received over 150,000 emails over the past four years and could not be expected to recall each one.