Ex-McDonald’s CEO forced to pay back $105m in severance pay over nude pics

The former executive had relationships with three employees and was caught with explicit images and videos of the employees on his work email

A former McDonald's CEO had to repay more than $105m in compensation after he was accused of lying about inappropriate workplace relationships.

Steve Easterbrook agreed to return the money and his equity awards to the company, issuing an apology admitting that he failed to "uphold McDonald's values" as part of his settlement agreement.

Mr Easterbrook was fired in 2019 after it was discovered he had been sending inappropriate texts and videos to an employee with which he had a non-physical, consensual relationship. The company initially payed him severance, but later sued to take the money back when it discovered he had lied about having consensual relationships with three other workers.

The executive's severance was originally valued at $42m when it was issued in 2019, and his stock earnings from the company were estimated by executive pay firm Equilar at $62m.

In his apology statement, Mr Easterbrook apologised to his former colleagues and admitted that he failed to "fulfill certain of my responsibilities as a leader of the company."

After his firing in 2019, Mr Easterbook told McDonald's that he had no other similar instances of relationships with employees, but a year later an anonymous tip informed the company that his statements were untrue and that he had been in a sexual relationship with another employee.

That prompted an investigation during which McDonald's found the executive had two other sexual relationships with employees during his tenure. The company claimed he removed evidence of those relationships from his phone, which he had turned over to the company for inspection.

The evidence collected by the company included dozens of nude, partially nude and sexually explicit photos and videos of various women, including the company employees.

According to the company, Mr Easterbrook sent the explicit images and videos from his company email to his personal email account.

The action is part of a broader shake-up at McDonald's over sexual harassment allegations within the company. Over the last five years, more than 50 workers have filed charges against the company alleging physical and verbal harassment. In some cases those reports were also allegedly met with retaliation by those facing accusations.

The company began using new harassment training for its employees a month before Mr Easterbrook was fired.