Google paid Andy Rubin millions after misconduct allegations

Image: Smith Collection / Gado / getty

Andy Rubin, the creator of Android, is a very wealthy man. 

According to a blockbuster report from the New York Times, that’s thanks in no small part to a $90 million payment from Google as company executives ushered him out the door while simultaneously sweeping credible sexual misconduct allegations under the rug. 

The story details a string of alleged misconduct by Rubin, noting multiple affairs with Google employees and one claim of “coerced” oral sex from an Android employee in 2013. The Times notes that the company investigated, and found the claim to be credible. 

Of course, you never would know that based on the fond farewell he received from then chief executive Larry Page.

“I want to wish Andy all the best with what’s next,” said Page in 2014. “With Android he created something truly remarkable — with a billion plus happy users. Thank you.”

And yet, by that point Page had reportedly asked Rubin to resign based on the findings of the internal investigation. 

A spokesperson for Rubin told the Times that “any relationship that Mr. Rubin had while at Google was consensual and did not involve any person who reported directly to him.”

Rubin, who briefly stepped away from his smartphone company Essential after it was reported he was involved in an “inappropriate relationship” at Google, also reportedly kept bondage sex videos on his Google work computer, and dated multiple women who worked at Google. At the time, he was married. 

His ex-wife, Rie Rubin, claims in a civil suit that Rubin had so-called “ownership relationships” with women. 

“You will be happy being taken care of,” he allegedly wrote in a 2015 email to an unidentified woman. “Being owned is kinda like you are my property, and I can loan you to other people.”

The Times story, while focusing on Rubin, notes additional alleged sexual misconduct by other Google higher-ups — including David C. Drummond, Richard DeVaul, and Amit Singhal.

Drummond is the current chief legal officer of Google parent Alphabet as well as the chairman of CapitalG. Singhal is a senior vice president. DeVaul is a director at X, the company’s “moonshot” division.