Activision Blizzard accused of driving ex employee to suicide

Parents of a 32 year old ex employee of Activision Blizzard, Kerry Moynihan who worked as a finance manager filed a lawsuit against the company alleging that Moynihan died due to a conducive and toxic environment at Activision. Moynihan’s parents claim that she committed suicide as she was subject to sexual harassment instances at the workplace. The parents alleged that sexual harassment experiences were a significant factor in compelling Moynihan to commit suicide.

Moynihan was found dead in a hotel room at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa in April 2017. At the time, investigators termed Moynihan’s death as suicide. In the recently filed lawsuit against the company by Paul and Janet Moynihan, it mentions that Greg Restituito, Moynihan’s boss hid his sexual relationship with their daughter at the time of investigation.

It is also reported that Activision did not let the investigators get access to Restituito’s and Moynihan’s company provided laptops and mobile phones. Moynihan’s suicide case was also mentioned in the report of California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) in July last year (without mentioning her name), where DFEH filed a law suite against Activision for fostering a culture of sexual harassment. DEFH’s law suite states that in a holiday party before Moynihan’s death, male co-workers at Activision passed around her nude pictures.

At the time, Activision denied such charges by DFEM and termed them as distorted and false.

This is not the first time Activision Blizzard is making the news of having a culture which encourages sexual harassment. Last year, the Wall Street Journal also reported that Bobby Kotick, CEO, Activision Blizzard, knew about the on going happenings of sexual harassment instances in the company and failed to convey this to the board.

Recently, Microsoft had announced that it will acquire Activision Blizzard for a deal of $69 Billion and the deal is set to close by 2023.