In another chapter of the tumultuous goings-on within Google, one of Alphabet's shareholders is suing the company, on behalf of itself, over the payouts given to Google executives who were accused of sexual misconduct. Filed yesterday in the San Mateo Superior Court, shareholder James Martin states in his complaint that the reason for the suit is, in short, that Google breached its fiduciary duties to shareholders. This means that by giving these payouts to those executives whose sexual harassment allegations were considered credible (instead of disciplining them appropriately), Google showed it was more interested in protecting its public image than it was securing its investors' rights and managing the company and its assets appropriately. This is the second such suit filed against Google this week.

The plaintiff is pushing for not only reparations for an unspecified amount of financial damages, but also for an end to the stock's dual-class voting structure and for all executives who received payouts to return them. Other elements in the prayer for relief include: better executive oversight; the elimination of NDAs so that current and former employees may report any instances of misconduct, harassment, and discrimination; and the elimination of forced arbitration in cases of wrongful termination and sexual harassment.

As stated in the complaint, this is partially in response to the New York Times report that said Google paid Andy Rubin a $90 million exit package after he was accused of multiple acts of sexual misconduct. The New York Times also stated that another Google executive, Amit Singhal, was given an exit package after he was similarly accused.

The full suit is close to 200 pages long (including all secondary and reference materials) and gets into a lot more, so if you're interested in the finer details, you check it out at the source link below.

Source: Lawsuit

Via: The Verge