Riot Games investigating its CEO over gender discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuit
Riot Games, who are the makers of games like League of Legends and Valorant, have said on Tuesday that an investigation has started on the accusations of sexual harassment and gender discrimination against its Chief Executive Officer, Nicolas Laurent.
The announcement of the investigation was following a lawsuit filed by a former executive assistant at Riot Games.
Sharon O’Donnell, a former executive assistant to Laurent, sued Riot and Laurant, alleging that the CEO made sexually suggestive remarks to her and invited her to work from his home when his wife wouldn’t be there.
Upon rejecting Laurent’s advances, O’Donnell was met with hostility and reduced workplace responsibilities, and finally, termination in July.
According to the lawsuit, “Riot Games is a male-dominated culture,” where female employees were “discriminated against, harassed and treated as second-class citizens.”
Riot has disputed O’Donnell’s account of her termination from the company.
In a statement, a Riot spokesperson said, “The plaintiff was dismissed from the company over seven months ago following more than a dozen complaints from both employees and external partners and after multiple coaching discussions to try and address these concerns.” The statement added that the company had formed a special committee, which was made up of members of its board to investigate the allegations.
O’Donnell’s attorney hasn’t responded to this.
Riot has previously faced allegations of harboring a culture of being unfriendly towards its female employees. The company was sued in 2018 by current and former employees, who alleged unequal pay, discrimination, and a “sexually hostile work environment”, among other things. In 2019, the video game maker agreed to pay at least $10 million to settle the lawsuit.