Riot Games’ investigation into chief executive Nicolo Laurent after a workplace discrimination case against the League of Legends company in January, was “unable to find any evidence to justify a sanction of any kind,” said a committee of the company’s board of directors on Tuesday.
A special board committee said it “concluded that there was no evidence that Laurent harassed, discriminated against or retaliated against” Sharon O’Donnell, a former executive assistant whose civil suit alleges that Laurent did these things. The committee, made up of members of Riot’s board who are not co-founders of the company, hired an outside law firm to investigate the matter. That company and the committee reported the results in the statement posted on the company’s website.
“This is not a recommendation that we take lightly,” said the board’s committee. “In cases involving high-level executives, we recognize that the dynamics of power can often give rise to behaviors and prejudices that infect other people’s experiences within the organization in toxic ways. In addition, in many of these cases, it can be difficult to reach a conclusion on these types of claims. “
That was not the case with the charges against Laurent, according to the company’s report. In mid-January, O’Donnell filed a lawsuit against Riot and Laurent at the Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming that Laurent had proposed her, asked her to travel with him and work at his home, then fired her after reporting the matter. a Riot human resources department.
O’Donnell’s lawsuit, following a highly publicized investigative report on Riot’s local workplace culture and the treatment of women, and a collective action that followed, prompted the board to call a special investigation and then publicly discuss their findings, said the board’s committee.
The committee said that “if any additional material evidence of inappropriate conduct on the part of Laurent comes to light, we will request that Riot reopen the investigation without hesitation and without prejudice.”
Obtained for additional comments, a spokesman for Riot Games referred Polygon readers to the company’s statements on its website. O’Donnell’s lawyer declined to comment further on the case.
On the Riot website, Laurent said that “O’Donnell’s allegations of harassment, discrimination and retaliation involving me are not true. Nothing of this nature, or even remotely close to it, has ever happened. “
“I can say with certainty that, if these allegations were true, the Special Committee would have recommended my resignation and the board would have fired me,” wrote Laurent.
In turn, Riot Games called Laurent’s investigation “rigorous” and noted that “we separate from senior leaders when we validate inappropriate or discriminatory behavior. […] We were fully prepared to do it again. “
In a further related development, The Esports Observer reported on Monday that Dell’s subsidiary Alienware had terminated a sponsorship agreement with Riot Games a year before the deal ended. The Observer report cited an unidentified source, who said that Alienware’s departure was due to “concern for the game developer’s public image amid allegations of harassment and other controversies”.
A spokesman for Riot Games told Polygon that the company would not comment on its deal with Alienware, which started in 2019. But, “as we continue discussions with them, we remove their brand from our broadcasts,” said the spokesman. voice.
Polygon contacted an Alienware representative for additional comments.