The former Vice President of Unity has filed a lawsuit, which accuses ten employees and the CEO John Riccitiello of alleged sexual harassment and unwelcome advances. These are quite severe allegations because many notable celebrities in Hollywood have lost their stature, due to similar allegations. However, Unity has denied the allegations in these lawsuits.
The Company representatives gave a public statement, which said, “Unity will vigorously defend against the allegations of Anne Evans. We did a third-party assessment on her and found serious misconduct and negligence on her part. As of now, Unity has permanently terminated her contract.”
Anne Evans, former Unity VP, filed a lawsuit last Wednesday, in which she said that her time with the Company was filled with inappropriate and lewd comment towards women, from the men. The most severe allegation Evans made was that Riccitiello attempted to lure Evans in the hotel room for sex and later told her not to tell anyone about it.
The lawsuit of Evans states, “The Company CEO and other men used their management position to talk about women in a sexual manner. They also made sexist jokes and had sexual relations with female employees. When Evans joined the Company, Riccitiello started making inappropriate comments about her. When they met at the Battery, Riccitiello crossed every limit. Riccitiello harassed her by saying different things, like the way she walked was quite ‘sexy’, and he couldn’t believe that she was a lesbian.”
These comments also included a proposition of sex towards Evans and other women.
The lawsuit further says, “On one occasion, Riccitiello proposed Evans and asked her if she would come with him to his hotel room. Evans denied this. She later found out that Riccitiello also proposed two other girls to come to his room for a threesome. The women also denied his proposal. On the next day at work, Riccitiello pushed Evans into the conference room and told her not to tell anyone about the things he said last evening.”
“During Evans stay at Unity, Riccitiello continuously talked about the women he had slept with, their age group and the different sexual acts he performed with them,” says the lawsuit. “Brown, who was the chief people officer of Unity, laughed uncontrollably about Riccitiello’s tales of sexual relations with women.”
Unity released a Companywide survey about culture, earlier that year. According to Evans, Unity’s head of recruiting, Natalie Mulay, decided to share the incidents that happened with Evans. However, Evans thought that the Company would manipulate the results.
The lawsuit says that the Company started investigating Mulay. Mulay panicked and threatened to put false accusations of harassment on Evans, as the two had a relationship in 2016. Mulay accused Evans of harassing her. However, Evans was cleared of these accusations. Still, the Company found out that Evans had received gifts from Mulay, which was against the Company rules. However, Evans said in retaliation that Brown had also received gifts from Riccitiello.
The Lawsuit also states that the main reason for the termination of Evans was “due to her reporting of Mulay inappropriately judging the whole situation. She also rejected the evidence of Riccitiello’s advances on Evans.”
However, Unity says otherwise. The Company says that this wasn’t the real reason for her termination. According to the Company, Evans showed serious misconduct and lack of judgment, which led to her termination. Unity states that they were working with Evans on the details of her leaving when she filed the lawsuit.
Unity Spokesman says, “Evans had multiple chances to tell the Company about these incidents, through secret and confidential mechanisms. However, she didn’t. We tolerate neither harassment nor this behavior, at any cost. These kinds of incidents are a disgrace to the Company. We will make sure that these incidents won’t happen in the future.”
