McDonald's: Judge rejects ousted CEO’s plea to dismiss the lawsuit filed by the fast-food company over his affairs

A judge said that McDonald’s could prosecute its sacked CEO over his deceptions after lying about his affairs. This justice said this after the former chief filed a counter to dismissed the lawsuit filed by the fast-food chain to get back the $40 million severance pay package that was given to him.

Why McDonald’s is going after its former CEO

As per Fox Business, a Delaware judge rejected Steve Easterbrook’s bid to junk the case against him. The fired McDonald’s chief executive officer is involved in a legal battle with the company he worked for because he allegedly lied about his affairs.

McDonald’s wants to recover Easterbrook’s severance pay because he covered up his illicit sexual relationships with company employees, which is prohibited. It was reported that the company knew that the ex-CEO engaged in just one consensual relationship with staff, so it agreed to release his severance pay in 2019, which amounts to $41.8 million.

However, they later found out about his other relationships, so they want the money back. In his filing for the dismissal of the case, Easterbrook argued that McDonald’s has proof of his other sexual relations, and those were kept in the company’s computer system, so they were already aware of his affairs.

But the court said that McDonald’s only relied on his statements that he only had one inappropriate relationship when he was dismissed from the company. Thus, the case is moving forward, and the fast-food chain giant is determined to show its former CEO’s misconduct.

“He violated the company’s policies, disrespected its values and abused the trust of his co-workers, the board, our franchisees and our shareholders,” a statement from McDonald’s reads.

Easterbrook’s ouster and the lawsuit

Easterbrook was fired due to his bad behavior of having many affairs in the company. He was sued by McDonald’s nine months after he received his severance package. The restaurant stated that the ex-chief did not give them an accurate picture of his relationships with the company worker, and they even found out that he tried to conceal his other misdeeds.

The Daily Mail reported that after he was ousted from the company, they received a tip that led to the discovery of nude photos of women that were sent to his company account and later forwarded to his personal email.

Easterbrook deleted the emails when he was fired, but those illicit photos remained on the company server. He was said to have at least five inappropriate relationships, but only one was identified, and she is the company’s PR executive named Denise Paleothodoros. Finally, McDonald’s is not seeking compensatory damages in addition to recovering the severance pay from Easterbrook.