Larry Page 'bypassed' Alphabet's board to personally give Andy Rubin a $150 million stock package while he was under investigation for sexual misconduct, according to lawsuit (GOOG, GOOGL)

Larry Page

Alphabet CEO and cofounder Larry Page "bypassed" the board of directors and personally approved a $150 million stock-option package for Android creator Andy Rubin, according to a lawsuit cited in a Bloomberg report on Monday.
The $150 million stock package was awarded to Rubin while he was under an internal investigation for sexual-misconduct complaints, the report said.
According to the filing, Alphabet's leadership committee ultimately finalized the stock-option deal, but it was Page who personally gave initial approval.

Alphabet CEO and cofounder Larry Page personally approved a $150 million stock-option package for Android creator Andy Rubin while the executive was under an internal investigation for sexual misconduct, according to an investor lawsuit cited in a Bloomberg report on Monday.

According to the report, the lawsuit alleges that Page "bypassed" Alphabet's board of directors in approving the payout, with the board signing off on Page's decision later.

In October, The New York Times published details about the allegations that led to Rubin's dismissal — including his pressuring a woman with whom he had an extramarital relationship into performing oral sex.

The Times report also said that Rubin was awarded a $150 million stock-option package a few weeks into the internal investigation and that he was eventually given a $90 million exit package by the company, even after the investigation found the woman's complaint to be credible.

Andy Rubin

News of how Alphabet handled the allegations against Rubin and other senior leaders at Google mentioned in The New York Times report led to thousands of employees staging a walkout in protest in November.

In January, lawsuits were brought against Alphabet's board of directors over allegations it covered up accusations of sexual harassment or discrimination that were made against company executives. The filing on Monday was a revision of one of the original complaints, which had redacted many of the claims from public view.

A Google spokesperson told Business Insider on Monday: “There are serious consequences for anyone who behaves inappropriately at Google. In recent years, we’ve made many changes to our workplace and taken an increasingly hard line on inappropriate conduct by people in positions of authority.”

Over the past two years, there have been 48 employees terminated at Google for sexual harassment, including 13 who held senior management positions or higher. None of these individuals, according to Google, have received exit packages.

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