WWW- WIKIPEDIA co-founder Jimmy Wales is at the center of a Silicon Valley sex scandal after a former lover began auctioning clothes he left at her apartment on eBay.

Canadian journalist and television personality Rachel Marsden placed a sweater left by Wales at her apartment on eBay after the Web 2.0 icon supposedly dumped her via a statement on Wikipedia.

In the statement Wales downplayed his “brief” relationship with Marsden and said he was “no longer involved” with her, after growing speculation he edited her Wikipedia entry favourably while the two were romantically involved.

In an alleged conversation between the pair leaked to Silicon Valley gossip blog Valleywag, Wales suggested they work together on editing the entry before having sex.

“Let’s actually do this right now,” Wales supposedly wrote in reference to editing the entry.

“Because the last thing I want to do is take a break from f***ing your brains out all night to work on your Wikipedia entry :)”

No date was attached to the transcript.

In response to Wales’s statement denying their relationship, Marsden began placing his clothes on eBay and leaked another intimate message transcript which wound up on Valleywag.

“In picture two, there is a nice full length mirror… I am sure we can have some fun with that,” Marsden said in one message, referring to pictures of a hotel room.

“I am supposed to be designing a Google-killing search engine so I can buy a jet,” Wales allegedly said in another message.

Marsden replied: “Yes!!! So we have something else to have sex on!”

In his statement, Wales said rumours he and Marsden had been romantically involved since last year were false and that he had avoided any conflict of interest regarding her Wikipedia entry.

“I decided to meet Rachel Marsden in person for the first time in early February of this year,” he said.

“Accordingly, three days before that meeting, to avoid any appearance of a potential conflict of interest, I disclosed my plans… (and) recused myself from any further official action with respect to her biography,” he said.

“I care deeply about the integrity of Wikipedia, and take very seriously my responsibilities as a Member of the Board and as a member of the Wikipedia community.”

Marsden is best-known in the US as a conservative columnist and former Fox News personality who has been at the centre of a series of controversies, including pleading guilty to criminally harassing her then-boyfriend in 2004 and having an affair with a police counterterrorism officer who she later wrote about.

The representation of Marsden’s relationship with the officer on Wikipedia was one of the subjects she and Wales allegedly discussed while they were romantically involved, according to the leaked conversations.

Wales’s sweater, washed twice by Marsden before she modelled it on eBay, has so far attracted a bid of $US530 ($565).