NYT: Google Approved $45M Departure Package for Exec Accused of Groping

Google parent company Alphabet reportedly approved a $45 million exit package for a “top Google executive” who allegedly groped an employee.

According to the New York Times, the company’s board of directors “agreed to pay” Google Senior Vice President Amit Singhal, who “ran Google’s search operations until February 2016,” as “much as $45 million when he resigned from the company in 2016 after being accused of groping a subordinate.”

The $45 million package was reportedly “revealed on Monday in a shareholder lawsuit accusing the board of directors of Alphabet, the parent of Google, of shirking their responsibilities by agreeing to pay executives accused of misconduct instead of firing them for cause.”

Singhal departed his position at Google following allegations of groping.

Singhal reportedly groped the employee “at an off-site event,” and following an investigation, Google “found that Mr. Singhal had been inebriated,” and “concluded that the employee’s account was credible.”

In November, thousands of Google employees around the world staged a mass walk-out protest over a similar severance package Google gave to another executive who was accused of sexual misconduct.

As previously reported, Google allegedly gave former executive Andy Rubin a “hero’s farewell” and a “$90 million exit package,” after concluding that sexual harassment allegations against him were “credible.”

“I feel like there’s a pattern of powerful men getting away with awful behavior towards women at Google‚ or if they don’t get away with it, they get a slap on the wrist, or they get sent away with a golden parachute, like Andy Rubin,” complained one Google employee who was involved with the November protest. “And it’s a leadership of mostly men making the decisions about what kind of consequences to give, or not give.”

Last month, Google scrapped mandatory arbitration at the company in response to the demands listed by protesters.