Oliver Haslam·

Google Gave Android Founder Andy Rubin $90 Million Exit Package And Buried Credible Sexual Misconduct Claims Against Him

Andy Rubin, a man known as “the father of Android” by many, has had his fair share of problems over the last few years. His current company, Essential, just layed off a chunk of its workforce and canceled the follow-up to the Essential Phone.

Now he’s in the news again, this time thanks to a report by The New York Times in which it is alleged that the circumstances behind his leaving Google in 2014 may not have been fully disclosed at the time.

In fact, it would seem that he was involved in a misconduct case after an incident during which he apparently “coerced another Google employee into “performing oral sex in a hotel room in 2013.” Rubin subsequently resigned, receiving a $90 million pay-off in the process.

While Google could, and should have fired Rubin, co-founder Larry Page instead asked him to resign, allowing him to collect the $90 million – the last $2 million of which will be paid next month –  along with “a stock grant worth $150 million.” This, predictably, isn’t going down well with the rank and file at Google or, indeed, everyone outside the company.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai and VP of “people operations” Eileen Naughton haven’t refuted anything that the New York Times has reported, which is interesting in itself. Instead, an email was sent to all Google employees yesterday in which Pichai described the allegations as “difficult to read” while also pointing out that Google fired 48 people for sexual harassment over the last two years. However, we can only assume none of them were at executive level.

Rubin, for his part, says that the Times’ report is made up of numerous inaccuracies” and “wild exaggerations.”

Currently in the midst of a civil suit that was filed this month by his ex-wife, Rie Rubin, Andy Rubin’s outlook on woman and their role in his life is perhaps best summed up by two paragraphs in The New York Times’ piece.

In a civil suit filed this month by Mr. Rubin’s ex-wife, Rie Rubin, she claimed he had multiple “ownership relationships” with other women during their marriage, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to them.

The suit included a screenshot of an August 2015 email Mr. Rubin sent to one woman. “You will be happy being taken care of,” he wrote. “Being owned is kinda like you are my property, and I can loan you to other people.”

Charming.

(Source: NYT)

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