McDonald’s (NYSE:MCD) announced Thursday it has settled its lawsuit against former CEO Steve Easterbrook, clawing back his severance payment valued at $105 million.
The fast-food giant first brought a suit against its disgraced ex-chief executive in August 2020, claiming he committed fraud and lied during the company’s internal probe into his behavior months earlier.
As a result of that investigation, the company’s board found Easterbrook had a consensual relationship with an employee and fired him in November 2019. Despite their findings, the board still granted him a severance package that included cash and equity.
In the lawsuit, McDonald’s alleged that new information about Easterbrook’s actions came to light in July 2020, prompting further investigation from the company. A probe allegedly revealed that Easterbrook lied to the company and destroyed information regarding his inappropriate behavior, including three alleged additional sexual relationships with employees before his firing.
As part of the settlement, Easterbrook has returned the equity and cash awarded in his severance agreement, according to McDonald’s. He also apologized for his conduct.
When granted in 2019, Easterbrook’s severance was valued at $42 million by Equilar, which tracks executive compensation. Since then, the stock has climbed 37% to more than $264 per share.
Corporate governance experts questioned the board’s initial investigation into Easterbrook, asking why the probe was completed so quickly and why its servers weren’t checked, as is typical for those kinds of investigations.
Easterbrook allegedly deleted emails from his phone, but the company didn’t check internal servers until new information came to light.
MCD shares eked up 11 cents Thursday to $264.63
