Riot CEO Nicolo Laurent is under investigation after sued by a former employee over sexual harassment and gender discrimination in Los Angeles County Court.
Former Executive Assistant Sharon O’Donnell has filed the lawsuit on January 7th in the Stanley Mosk Courthouse of Los Angeles. The lawsuit is aimed at Nicolo Laurant as well as Riot Games, accusing them of gender discrimination, sexual harassment lost wages, medical expenses, and damages.
Her lawsuits highlight several moments while working for Riot where she was harassed. According to the lawsuit, O’Donnell was fired when Laurent’s alleged advances were turned down. She was put under severe workload and payments were declined including overtime and after a while, she was wrongfully terminated.
Initially O’Donnell’s lawyers made no comment but upon learning of Riot’s statement, they responded “Ms. ODonnell strongly denies that her wrongful termination had anything to do with complaints made by employees or external partners. She alleges that she was never made aware of any such complaints. Nor was there any “coaching”. Instead, there were sexist comments made about her “tone”. She alleges that she was wrongfully terminated because she refused to give in to Nicholas Laurent’s sexual overtures. She also alleges that she was also wrongfully terminated because she was a strong woman in a male dominated sexist company where women are devalued. She looks forward to proving her case.”
Though Riot defended themselves against the wrongful termination claims, “One subject we can address immediately is the plaintiff’s claim about their separation from Riot. The plaintiff was dismissed from the company over seven months ago based on multiple well-documented complaints from a variety of people. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false.”
“In this case, because some of the claims relate to an executive leader, a special committee of our Board of Directors is overseeing the investigation, which is being conducted by an outside law firm,” a Riot Games spokesperson told VICE Games. Riot has opened themselves to an investigation and promised full cooperation and until a verdict is given, Laurent will keep his place in the company.
This is not the first time Riot has been under fire for discrimination, they settled their previous gender discrimination in 2019 by paying out $10 million to their female employees and promised a better work environment. If O’Donnell has some truth to her claims then Riot clearly failed on their promise to improve their work environment.
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