NEW YORK, Sept 1 — McDonald’s Corp said yesterday former Chief Executive Steve Easterbrook’s motion against the company should be dismissed, reiterating that the terms of his separation from the company were based on fraudulent statements.
Easterbrook responded on August 14 to McDonald’s lawsuit, which claimed that the former CEO had covered up and lied about sexual relationships with at least three employees while negotiating his severance package.
McDonald’s said in a filing yesterday that it had dismissed Easterbrook based on his denial of having had a sexual relationship with any other employee and the absence of contradictory evidence on his phone.
In his response to McDonald’s lawsuit, Easterbrook had claimed that the company had information about his relationships when it negotiated his severance package, adding that he deleted evidence from his company phone, but the evidence remained in the company e-mail account stored on the firm’s servers.
“When McDonald’s investigated, Steve Easterbrook lied. He violated the company’s policies, disrespected its values, and abused the trust of his co-workers, the Board, our franchisees, and our shareholders,” the company said yesterday.
A lawyer representing Easterbrook did not respond to Reuters request for comment. — Reuters
