Andy Rubin takes leave from Essential for ‘personal reasons’ as investigation over ‘inappropriate’ Google relationship surfaces

The latest sexual harassment/misconduct to allegations hits a prominent name in the tech scene. Essential founder and CEO Andy Rubin is subject to a new report from The Information that claims Rubin left Google shortly after an internal investigation found he had an “inappropriate relationship” with a woman who worked under him in the Android division. While relationships are allowed within Google, they needed to disclose their relationship so one of them can be transferred out to another division or department. It isn’t clear what the relationship was like but during the duration of it the unidentified woman filed a complaint with Google’s human resources department. And shortly after this, Rubin left the company.

Rubin’s official spokesperson Mike Sitrick refutes The Information’s story saying, “Any relationship that Mr. Rubin had while at Google was consensual. Mr. Rubin was never told by Google that he engaged in any misconduct while at Google and he did not, either while at Google or since.” However, after this story broke, it’s been announced that Essential’s founder and CEO is taking a leave of absence for “personal reasons” and Essential’s President Niccolo de Masi will be in charge.

Source: The Verge + Android Central