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WeWork Paid Female Whistleblower $2 Million to Keep Quiet About Claims of Sex, Drugs and Discrimination

The woman sent the company a 50-page document in 2018 outlining claims of sex, illegal drug activity and rampant discrimination.

The co-working real estate company WeWork paid a woman $2 million to stay quiet about claims that the company engaged in illegal drug use, sexual harassment and pay discrimination, according to a report seen by Business Insider. The unnamed woman sent the company a 50-page document in 2018 outlining her claims, which, had they been leaked to the press, could have caused damage to the company’s growing success at the time. The woman who wrote the document worked under Mark Lapidus, the cousin of company founder Adam Neumann’s wife, and while she didn’t name him directly, many of the allegations of impropriety she outlined were in the department he ran. The woman threatened to sue the company over an unnamed WeWork employee and to file a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Lapidus was eventually let go around the same time as a settlement was reached with the woman, according to an investigation carried out by Business Insider. WeWork did not comment to the news outlet about the report.