French police arrest former Ubisoft executives over harassment allegations
French police have arrested five former Ubisoft executives, including a former chief creative officer, on sexual harassment charges. The news comes from French publication Libération (GamesIndustry.biz), which first published details of the complaints made against Ubisoft in 2020 and 2021 in the week that Ubisoft is launching their latest Assassin's Creed game, Mirage.
Those complaints led to five former executives leaving the company and sparked the lengthy investigation by the Bobigny public prosecutor’s office into their conduct that resulted in this week’s arrests.
French police took Serge Hascoët, former chief creative officer, and former vice president of editorial Tommy François, into custody, along with three others.
Former Ubisoft chief creative officer Serge Hascoet
Ubisoft
Libération didn’t mention what the specific charges are. However, the arrests stem from complaints that the Solidaires Informatique union and two independent victims of harassment at Ubisoft made. The Paris judicial police gathered testimonies from roughly 50 employees and former employees in addition to the 20 testimonials that Libération originally collected in 2020.
These include accounts that François and friends of his at Ubisoft held a female employee down so he could forcibly kiss her in 2015 – and allegations that this was not the first time François had engaged in sexual violence of this nature.
Maude Becker, the plaintiff’s lawyer, told Libération that the problems at Ubisoft reveal “systemic sexual violence” that goes beyond individual behavior.
“Ubisoft has no knowledge of what has been shared and therefore can't comment,” a company representative told Libération when contacted about the arrests.
