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Android creator Andy Rubin allegedly concealed Google payments from wife

The former Google exec reportedly received a $90 million severance package after being accused of sexual harassment.

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Andy Rubin has been accused by his estranged wife of setting up a separate account to conceal income from Google before he left the company in 2014.

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Andy Rubin, a former Google executive and the inventor of the Android operating system, left the search giant after having an "inappropriate relationship" with a subordinate and then concealed secret payments related to his departure from his wife for several years, according to a court filing made public Tuesday.

The civil complaint, filed in San Mateo Superior Court by Rubin's estranged wife, Rie Hirabaru Rubin, alleges Rubin and a former attorney conspired to convince her to sign a premarital agreement a few days before they were married, defrauding her of money that should have been due her as part of community property.

The New York Times reported in October that Google paid Rubin $90 million after company co-founder Larry Page asked for his resignation following an allegation that Rubin coerced a female employee into performing oral sex in a hotel room in 2013. Rubin left the company in 2014.

The Times report arose during a period of prominent figures in industries ranging from politics to entertainment being toppled by revelations of sexual harassment or sexual assault. In the tech industry, companies such as Uber have wrestled with accounts of work environments fraught with varying degrees of sexual harassment.

The lawsuit, reported earlier by BuzzFeed, doesn't specifically mention the hefty severance package Google allegedly paid Rubin, but it does allege he "concealed his income" from her and kept her "in the dark as to his sources of income, the amount of money the family had, and what it was being spent on."

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The redacted complaint goes on to allege that before he left Google, Rubin stopped making deposits into their joint account and set up a separate bank account in just his name, where he deposited his earnings and made selected payments. "These included hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments to other women," the complaint reads.

Andy Rubin also ran "what appeared to be a sex ring," according to the complaint, which notes the premarital agreement protected Rubin from financial consequences of a divorce due to extramarital affairs. The complaint alleges Rubin had affairs with at least five other women.

The "sex ring" allegations contained in the complaint mirror those made by a Google shareholder in a lawsuit. Shareholder James Martin sued the company in January, saying that "Rubin was allowed to quietly resign" after an internal investigation found the sexual harassment allegation to be credible.

"While at Google, Rubin is also alleged to have engaged in human sex trafficking -- paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to women to be, in Rubin's own words, 'owned' by him," Martin's complaint said.

Rubin's attorney in the divorce case disputed the veracity of the claims lodged by Rie Rubin.

"This is a family law dispute involving a wife who regrets her decision to execute a prenuptial agreement," Ellen Stross said in a statement. "It is full of false claims, and we look forward to telling our side of the story."

Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. A former attorney who's named as a defendant in this lawsuit couldn't be reached for comment.

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