McDonald's wants to recoup former CEO Steve Easterbrook's exit package valued at about $40 million.
Former McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook is being sued by the company because he reportedly lied to the board about the extent of his relationships with employees.
According to various reports, Easterbrook misled investigators about engaging in physical sexual relationships with three employees a year before he was ousted. This, the lawsuit filings say, violated company policy and is the grounds upon which McDonald's is suing Easterbrook for the full amount of his exit package valued at about $40 million (approximately R700,000).
“Easterbrook’s silence and lies — a clear breach of the duty of candour — were calculated to induce the Company to separate him on terms much more favourable to him than those the Company would have offered and agreed to had it known the full truth of his behaviour,” McDonald’s said in the filing.
The company Easterbrook "approved an extraordinary stock grant, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars" for one of the employees he was having a relationship with, while the court filings also accuse Easterbrook of erasing evidence of these relationships from his phone and telling investigators "deliberate falsehoods" at the time when allegations of his relationships with employees were being investigated.
