Bill Gates’ 23-year-old daughter, Phoebe Gates, is facing allegations that her shopping startup used “cookie stuffing” to collect commissions on online sales it did not actually generate. Gates co-founded the digital shopping company Phia with Sophia Kianni, offering users a browser extension that searches for lower prices and discount codes. A recent investigation accused the company’s leadership of knowingly using features that improperly claimed credit for purchases. An attorney warned that cookie stuffing can be prosecuted as federal wire fraud, which can carry a maximum sentence of 20 years.
Phia’s business model focuses on affiliate sales produced through its browser extension. When a shopper uses the extension before completing a purchase, the software can place a digital “cookie” that identifies Phia as the source of the referral, allowing the company to collect a commission from the seller. The allegations against Phia say that cookies were allegedly being placed when the extension had not actually caused the purchase.
A Bloomberg investigation published in July alleged that Gates and Kianni pushed for features that allowed Phia to claim commissions from sales it didn’t produce. The report named major retailers including Nike, Nordstrom, and Gap among the companies from which Phia claimed sales data. Phia also drew $30 million in 2025 from prominent investors, including Hailey Bieber and Kris Jenner, according to the report.
As the Daily Caller reported, Phia allegedly disabled the features in question after Bloomberg exposed the practice. The company’s daily revenue then reportedly plunged from approximately $80,000 to somewhere between $10,000 and $28,000. Bloomberg presented the steep decline as evidence that a substantial share of the company’s previous income had been connected to the challenged tracking features.
The investigation also raised questions about how long Gates and Kianni knew the software was claiming bogus sales. Bloomberg said it obtained Slack messages and information from people close to the situation indicating that the co-founders had known about the issue for at least seven months. Gates and Kianni reportedly maintained that they had learned about the problem only “within the last 24 hours” when responding to the investigation.
One Slack message attributed to Gates and dated December 18th appeared to discuss expanding the use of automatic cookie drops. “Worried this is an issue across the board…can u confirm auto pop for cookie drop is live on ALL sites w a coupon to confirm we are monetizing on all gmv,” Gates allegedly wrote. Bloomberg also claimed that Kianni proposed dropping a cookie whenever a user closed a Phia pop-up, although a company spokesperson denied the investigation’s allegations.
Phia said it removed any features that were causing inaccurate attribution and began reviewing affected transactions. “Any features causing misattributions were immediately removed over a month ago on July 7th,” a company spokesperson said. “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.”
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The response described the disputed transactions as “misattributions” and promised repayments to affected business partners, while denying Bloomberg’s allegation that company leaders knowingly enabled cookie stuffing. Gates, Kianni, or Phia have not been charged with a crime at the writing of this article.
Ariel Givner, founder of Givner Law, warned that the alleged conduct could have serious legal consequences if prosecutors concluded it was intentional fraud. “Again, this is called cookie stuffing!” Givner wrote on X. “On a simple level, it’s automatically injecting affiliate tracking cookies to claim commissions on sales you didn’t drive. 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.”