After an internal investigation by Riot Games didn’t find any evidence against CEO Nicolo Laurent, former employee Sharon O’Donnell filed new allegations.
In what is possibly on its way to becoming quite a legal battle, former Riot employee Sharon O’Donnell filed more allegations against Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent. O’Donnell claimed she was wrongfully terminated and accused Laurent of sexually propositioning her, a claim which Riot Games and Laurent deny. Now she filed new allegations after a supposed meeting with an unnamed witness, who claims Laurent touched her inappropriately.
1. The fresh allegation, in this case, was not made by O’Donnell. She was told about this supposed encounter by one witness.
Supposedly, an “incident” took place in which Laurent supposedly “touched her breast.”
— George Geddes (@GeorgeCGed) March 18, 2021
Riot Games defend themselves against the new allegations in a statement made to Daily Esports, not backing down from their earlier findings. “Plaintiff’s legal strategy, as seen in her most recent filing, appears to be designed to spread additional falsehoods to embarrass our CEO and the Company. After her motivation and credibility have been called into question, the plaintiff has responded with new allegations attacking our CEO that directly contradict the detailed and signed declarations provided by the individuals to which she refers.”
In their earlier statement Riot Games has accused O’Donnell of harassing and threatening potential witnesses, criticizing her for spreading misinformation and using rumors and hearsay to back up her claims, something O’Donnell and her legal counsel have denied.
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Image credit: Riot Games
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Previous article (17/03/21)
After allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced against Riot Games CEO Nicolo Laurent, Riot Games conducted an internal investigation.
The investigation by Riot Games has now concluded and according to them has found no evidence that CEO Nicolo Laurent harassed their former employee, Sharon O’Donnell. According to O’Donnell she was propositioned by Laurent and she believes he had her fired after she reported her to human resources. Laurent denies the accusations. “The allegations of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation involving me are not true. Nothing of that nature, or even remotely close to it, ever happened.”
Riot Games is on the offensive re: allegations against its CEO. CEO says “The allegations of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation involving me are not true.” Riot also filed new docs with court. I have a lot to say about those, but will just share this for the time being. pic.twitter.com/2RosLrJVUl
— Cecilia D’Anastasio (@cecianasta) March 16, 2021
Riot also released a statement on their findings during the investigation. “The Special Committee of our Board of Directors has concluded that after review of the results of the investigation, and based on everything they know today, there is no evidence that Nicolo harassed, discriminated, or retaliated against Ms. O’Donnell. The Special Committee has also expressed its full confidence in Nicolo’s leadership, that no action against him is warranted, and that he will continue to operate as CEO.“
Over the past few years Riot Games has come under fire multiple times in regards to their company atmosphere and culture, with multiple women already speaking out about being harassed at work. Riot subsequently set up an ‘internal diversity and inclusion initiative’ to combat these issues.