Best Buy Looking Into Ex-CEO's Relationship with Employee

Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) is reportedly probing former CEO Brian Dunn’s personal life to see if he misused company assets while having an alleged affair with a female subordinate.

The company did not immediately respond to FOXBusiness.com for this story, but a spokesman told The Wall Street Journal that details would not be disclosed until the board’s audit committee completes the review.

The consumer electronics giant also failed to say whether the woman, a 29 year old who worked in a leadership training institute at the company’s Richfield, Minn.-based headquarters, was still an employee of the company.

Dunn, who is 51 and married, abruptly resigned earlier this week. Shortly after, the board said it was conducting a probe related to his personal conduct.

The audit committee has hired high-profile lawyers, including William McLucas, a former enforcement chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Thomas Stickland, both partners at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr in Washington D.C., according to the Journal, citing people close to the matter.

On Thursday, Best Buy said its board appointed a global search committee to look for a new chief executive. It expects that search to take between six and nine months.

Dunn’s departure comes on the heels of a $1.7 billion quarterly loss. He had laid out a plan last month to gradually transition the company away from big-box stores by shutting some, remodeling others, and opening smaller stores focused on mobile phones.

That plan, which the company says it intends to move forward with, called for the departure of 400 employees at the corporate and support levels.