Google paid more than $105 million to two top executives it forced to resign for sexual harassment, giving lie to its oft repeated assertion it had paid none of these men an exit package.
Google has indeed paid some of these men millions was confirmed in a shareholder lawsuit filed by shareholder James Martin at the Superior Court of Santa Clara, California. The case, which is docketed as 19CV343672 Martin v. Page, et al, reveals Google paid $90 million to Andy Rubin and $15 million to Amit Singhal after both men were accused of sexual harassment at the company and forced to resign.
Rubin and Singhal received these enormous sums to expedite their departure from Google with the least amount of fuss and unfavorable publicity.
Rubin, who left Google in October 2014, joined the company in 2005 as senior vice president of mobile and digital content. He was head of the robotics division of Google when a sexual harassment claim was filed against him by an employee. Upon a Google investigation, this claim against Rubin was found to be credible.
The employee, with whom Rubin had an extramarital affair, accused him of coercing her into oral sex in 2013. CEO Larry Page personally asked for Rubin's resignation.
Singhal was the head of Google's core Search team for 15 years. He was the Head of Google Search when he was forced to leave Google in February 2016. To save face, Singhal framed his resignation as a retirement. Google has declined to explain the exact circumstances behind Singhal's departure, but there is strong suspicion he left because he groped an employee at an event.
Both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal broke the story that details how Google even rewarded this aberrant behavior. In his lawsuit, Martin confirms Google's board of directors approved the $90 million exit package for Rubin "as a goodbye present to him. No mention, of course, was made about the true reason for Rubin's 'resignation' -- his egregious sexual harassment while at Google."
On the other hand, Singhal "was allowed to quietly resign at Google in 2016 in the wake of credible allegations of sexual harassment, and was paid millions in severance."
The lawsuit also reveals Google first agreed to pay $45 million to Singhal, but wound-up paying just $15 million because he went to work for Uber, which later fired him for not disclosing his sexual harassment case at Google.
"Because Google's Board concealed the reasons for Singhal's departure, he found another lucrative job," states the lawsuit.
Martin's lawsuit belies Google's repeated claim Rubin and Singhal received no exit packages. In November 2018, Google affirmed 48 of its employees were fired for sexual harassment, including 13 who were senior managers and above.
At the time, Google kept saying none of these men had received an exit package.
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