Why is there Walk-Out at Google Worldwide Today?

How Google Protected Andy Rubin, the ‘Father of Android’

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/technology/google-sexual-harassment-andy-rubin.html

By Daisuke Wakabayashi and Katie Benner, NY Times

Oct. 25, 2018

SAN FRANCISCO — Google gave Andy Rubin, the creator of Android mobile software, a hero’s farewell when he left the company in October 2014. [However, Andy had a dark secret. Andy was running a sex-slave ring at Google].

'"Google could have fired Mr. Rubin and paid him little to nothing on the way out. Instead, the company handed him a $90 million exit package, paid in installments of about $2 million a month for four years, said two people with knowledge of the terms. The last payment is scheduled for next month.'"

Mr. Rubin was one of three executives that Google protected over the past decade after they were accused of sexual misconduct. In two instances, it ousted senior executives, but softened the blow by paying them millions of dollars as they departed, even though it had no legal obligation to do so. In a third, the executive remained in a highly compensated post at the company. Each time Google stayed silent about the accusations against the men.

The transgressions varied in severity. Mr. Rubin’s case stood out for how much Google paid him and its silence on the circumstances of his departure. After Mr. Rubin left, the company invested millions of dollars in his next venture.

GOOGLE HAS A TRACK RECORD OF OFFICE EXTRAMARTIAL AFFAIRS AND OFFICE SEX

In Silicon Valley, it is widely known that Mr. Page had dated Marissa Mayer, one of the company’s first engineers who later became chief executive of Yahoo. (Both were single.)

Eric Schmidt, Google’s former chief executive, once retained a mistress to work as a company consultant, according to four people with knowledge of the relationship.

And Mr. Brin, who along with Mr. Page owns the majority of voting shares in Google’s parent, Alphabet, had a consensual extramarital affair with an employee in 2014, said three employees with knowledge of the relationship.

David C. Drummond, who joined as general counsel in 2002, had an extramarital relationship with Jennifer Blakely, a senior contract manager in the legal department who reported to one of his deputies, she and other Google employees said. Since the affair, Mr. Drummond’s career has flourished. He is now Alphabet’s chief legal officer and chairman of CapitalG, Google’s venture capital fund. He has reaped about $190 million from stock options and awards since 2011 and could make more than $200 million on other options and equity awards, according to company filings.

Richard DeVaul of Dept Head of X apologized for an “error of judgment” with Star Simpson, who had interviewed for a job with him. DeVaul forced himself on Simpson demanding she remove her shirt before being hired.

In another harassment case, Google paid Amit Singhal, a senior vice president who headed search, millions of dollars on the way out. Amit Singhal, Google’s search chief, left the company in 2016 after being accused of groping a female employee. [Singhal is now at Uber]

ANDY RUBIN'S "OWNERSHIP RELATIONSHIPS" [SEX SLAVES "ON LOAN"]

Google security staff found bondage sex videos on Mr. Rubin’s work computer, said three former and current Google executives briefed on the incident. That year, the company docked his bonus, they said.

Mr. Rubin, 55, who met his wife at Google, also dated other women at the company while married, said four people who worked with him. In 2011, he had a consensual relationship with a woman on the Android team who did not report to him, they said.

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 couple were divorced in August.

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.”

Google continues to pay 100s of millions to Rubin's new non-Google companies.