Bill Gates daughter Phoebe accused of cookie stuffing scheme that has max penalty of 20 years in prison: reports

Bill Gates’ “nepo baby” daughter Phoebe Gates, 23, has been accused of “cookie stuffing” at her multibillion-dollar startup, Phia – an illicit practice that comes with a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison, according to reports.Phia – a digital personal shopping assistant co-founded by Gates with fellow Stanford alum Sophia Kianni – reacted with shock in July following reports that it was dropping more web “cookies” than it should, taking undue credit for online sales at retail partners.The company released a statement that it had only learned of the issue “within the last 24 hours,” pledging to fix the glitch – but according to a new Bloomberg report, the young entrepreneurs had known for at least seven months that their startup was overcounting its sales commissions.Ariel Givner, founder and principal attorney at Givner Law, warned in a post on X Tuesday that “cookie stuffing” can come with serious consequences.“It’s typically treated as federal wire fraud in US courts.There’s a possibility of a max penalty of up to 20 years prison + fines/restitution,” Givner wrote.A Phia spokesperson told The Post: “Any features causing misattributions were immediately removed over a month ago on July 7.

We are reviewing every transaction, we are fully committed to and have already begun issuing all transaction reversals to brand partners as a result of any misattribution, and we are hiring a head of compliance to make sure something like this never happens again.“We are now continuing to connect our users with items and offers from thousands of brand partners,” the spokesperson added.“We will learn from this and want to ensure our users have the best possible shopping experience, with features like our new digital closet and more to come.” The startup – which raised a jaw-dropping $30 million in 2025 from backers including Hailey Bieber, Kris Jenner and Spanx founder Sara Blakely – operates as a browser extension,...