By Nick Santangelo

Riot Games COO Scott Gelb has been suspended without pay for two months following allegations of workplace misconduct, reports Kotaku.

A company email obtained by Kotaku explains that the disciplinary action was handed down after multiple employees reported Gelb had touched subordinates’ genitals or butts or farted in their faces in attempts at comedy.

Several employees informed Kotaku that they felt a two-month suspension was far from satisfactory given Gelb’s alleged offenses.

Gelb was at the center of an in-depth Kotaku investigative report earlier this year that painted a toxic work culture at Riot Games, one that has been plagued by sexism. These allegations apparently led Riot to contract law Firm Seyfarth Shaw to conduct an investigation into Gelb overseen by Riot’s Board of Directors following that report. Following that investigation, the decision was made to keep Gelb at Riot after his suspension and mandatory training.

“As I have mentioned, we are committed to protecting Rioters’ privacy and the integrity of the investigation process,” wrote Riot CEO Nicolo Laurent in an email to employees on Monday. “This means that you will not hear me or any other leader discuss individual cases.”

“Having said that, we made a very rare exception in the case of our COO, Scott Gelb. There are factors that collectively drive this exception. The Special Committee of the Board of Directors has specifically requested that one of Scott [Gelb]’s consequences be highly visible. Scott holds one of the most senior roles at Riot and is held to a higher level of accountability and visibility, therefore certain consequences are going to be very visible to Rioters. It’s for these reasons I feel it’s necessary to make an exception.”

Despite the disciplinary action, however, Laurent wrote that “Many of the rumors circulating about Scott within the company, in the media, and other channels, are not true.” Following this, Kotaku inquired as to which portions of the reports Riot had found to be untrue, but the company declined to comment.

“There were claims made about Scott engaging in inappropriate and unprofessional behavior, particularly during the early days of Riot,” continued Laurent in his email. “And some of these claims were, in fact, substantiated. The conduct alleged in these claims is not acceptable.”

Laurent added that Gelb could have “avoided owning his past and his consequences” by leaving Riot, but he believes the COO “chose ownership and redemption.” Laurent ended by saying he supports Gelb and looks forward to seeing him return as “a great leader” in 2019 and hopes Riot employees will join him in that support.

That clearly won’t be the case for at least some, as Kotaku described several current employees it spoke to as being “furious” over Riot’s response. One called it “a tiny slap on the wrist” that showed no respect towards those who were hurt or offended by Gelb’s actions. Another called for Gelb to be fired or demoted, alleging that two months off without pay is hardly even a punishment for someone “who likely made loads of money off his early involvement in Riot.”

A third, anonymous current employee thought it was “pretty telling that Riot’s commitment to changing their culture only goes as far as firing people who aren’t already insulated from the repercussions of that culture. For Riot leadership, protecting their awful friends matters more than protecting their vulnerable employees. And that isn’t going to change unless the workers do something about it directly.”

In August, Riot responded to Kotaku’s original report by saying it had “a zero tolerance policy on discrimination, harassment, retaliation, bullying, and general toxicity.” Riot followed that up with a commitment to change later that same month. In November, current and former employees filed a class-action lawsuit against Riot alleging gender-based discrimination.

Nick Santangelo is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia. He loves video games and sports, but not sports video games. Follow him on Twitter.