NEW YORK—The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday charged former McDonald’s Corp. Chief Executive Stephen Easterbrook with making false and misleading statements to investors about the circumstances of his 2019 termination.
The SEC hit Easterbrook with a five-year officer and director bar and a $400,000 civil penalty.
McDonald’s fired Easterbrook in November 2019 for exercising “poor judgment” by engaging in a relationship with a McDonald’s employee, the SEC said.
But Easterbrook failed to disclose other additional violations of company policy he committed by engaging in undisclosed relationships with other employees of the fast-food giant, it said.
“When corporate officers corrupt internal processes to manage their personal reputations or line their own pockets, they breach their fundamental duties to shareholders,” the SEC’s enforcement director Gurbir Grewal said in a statement….