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A former NFL player is suing the CEO of a metaverse company, alleging that she pressured him to play “sexually harassing games” and discriminated against him because he is black.
Teyo Johnson, a former tight end for the Oakland Raiders, filed a lawsuit against Everyrealm CEO Janine Yorio in August, alleging she presided over a toxic work environment.
He alleges in an amended complaint obtained by DailyMail.com that Yorio pressured him to participate in “sexual harassment games” in which co-workers and customers were encouraged to sleep with each other.
Lawyers for the company Metaverse, which develops and sells virtual real estate, have vehemently denied these allegations, saying Johnson made the inappropriate comments at his New York offices.
Teyo Johnson, a former tight end for the Oakland Raiders, filed a lawsuit against Everyrealm and its CEO, Janine Yario, in August.
He claims in recent court documents that Yorio (pictured) pressured him into playing “sexual harassment games” to sleep with co-workers and clients.
But Johnson’s lawsuit is just one of three filed against the virtual reality company, accusing Yorio of sexually harassing black employees and subjecting them to racial remarks, even once threatening to “exchange” Johnson if he didn’t perform his job. .
Together, they seek $1.9 million in damages from the Andreessen Horowitz-backed company that “invests in and develops virtual worlds.”
In his lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan, Johnson claims Yorio encouraged him to play a “sex-related game” during a business trip to SXSW in August.
According to the lawsuit, Yorio used the euphemisms “KYP,” which stands for “know your staff,” and “KYC,” which stands for “know your customer,” to mean “have sex or hook up with your coworkers and business partners.” .
He allegedly told Johnson, who worked as the company’s director of strategic partnerships, that “the way to play the game” was to “sleep a coworker on a business trip.”
Yorio is then accused of asking him if he “would be doing any KYP” on the trip, which the lawsuit says puzzled Johnson.
“In other words, Ms. Yorio asked Mr. Johnson if he planned to have sex or hook up with any co-workers during SXSW, hinting that she strongly encouraged him.”
He says that he “politely informed her that he was already very close to someone.”
But later that night, Johnson alleged that Yorio went to his Austin hotel room and “insinuated in no uncertain terms that she believed he would” cheat on his girlfriend to “play the company’s KYP game.”
“It was apparent to him that Ms. Yorio, the CEO of his new employer who had told him during his interview that he was “more than just a pretty face” was inappropriately “testing the waters” with him, according to the lawsuit. . .
“To Mr. Johnson, he and Ms. Yorio were colleagues and nothing more,” she continues, noting that he was her subordinate.
Johnson also alleges that he was wrongfully fired after speaking out about a potentially illegal gambling project.
The lawsuit also alleges that Yorio made offensive jokes about Johnson’s girlfriend’s menstrual cycle and referred to him as a “stupid black person” and “the whitest black person.”
Furthermore, it is alleged that she called him ‘d***’, ‘big swinging d***’ and ‘f***d***’.
And, according to the lawsuit, William Kerr, the company’s general counsel, once referred to Paris Hilton, an Everyrealm investor who has been photographed with Yorio at past events, as a “night in Paris,” the title of the video. Revenge porn leaked to the internet in 2004.
Johnson, whose job required managing celebrity accounts like Hilton’s, was said to be horrified that in order to carry out his job duties, he had to listen to derogatory comments and name calling.
DailyMail.com has reached out to lawyers for the metaverse company, as well as Paris Hilton’s agent for comment.
The lawsuit also claims that an Everyrealm lawyer made disparaging comments about Paris Hilton, an investor who has been photographed with Yorio in the past.
Johnson was hired by the company in July 2022, when he says Yorio told then-human resources director Kathy Yost, “Teyo is the whitest black man I’ve ever met,” only to later insist that he “said it in good sense.” Yost also recounted the interaction on her own claim.
Soon after, Johnson says, he learned he was the company’s lowest-paid director, with a base salary of $125,000 and a discretionary bonus of $40,000.
Later, when he held a successful partnership meeting with LeBron James’ entertainment company Spring Hills, Yorio reportedly told Johnson: “[You’re] Lucky it turned out well, now I don’t have to change you.’
Ultimately, Johnson claims was fired in retaliation for exposing a potentially illegal cryptocurrency ‘gambling scheme’ involving NFT playing cards of professional soccer players.
According to the lawsuit filed in August, the scheme “involved a cryptocurrency version of fantasy sports in which users purchased NFT packs representing cards of professional soccer players.”
He explains: ‘Users would enter crypto into a pool and then win prize money if their NFT cards performed better than the other players’ NFTs.
But, the lawsuit says, Everyrealm did not have a gambling license in New York, where it is based, and “reasonably believed” that the game would “violate numerous New York and federal laws” such as “randomizing card packs.” .. would qualify as gambling and therefore illegal.’
After he expressed his concerns to his supervisors and the NFT project was scrapped, he claims, Yorio “turned sour” on Johnson and ended up in his “kennel.”
Later, the lawsuit says, his proposal to forge a relationship between Everyrealm and NFL.com was sabotaged by Yorio and other executives.
Johnson said he had met with NFL.com executives to form a partnership and created a project plan with requests to design 3D graphics for the proposal.
Julia Schwartz, a member of the board of directors, asked to be ‘kept in the toilet'[‘ in the aftermath, and said she wanted to write the proposal herself, according to the suit.
‘However, it became clear within a couple of days that not only had Ms. Schwartz not started writing the proposal, but she was secretly preventing anyone in her department from providing Mr. Johnson with the 3D graphics he had requested,’ the suit states.
Under pressure to get the proposal completed, it says, Johnson decided to write the proposal himself and included a skybox meeting place Yorio had proposed in which fans of each NFL team could meet virtually with the players.
But when he handed it to Yorio, the suit claims, she refused to send the proposal back to NFL.com, telling Johnson: ‘We don’t need to be detailed in what we can build out, we need to be vague.’
Everyrealm is a virtual reality real estate company that ‘invests in and develops virtual worlds’
A spokesperson for the company has now vehemently denied the allegations in a statement to DailyMail.com calling them ‘lies.’
‘As we have stated in our court filings, this employee worked at the company for only three months and was terminated for poor performance, expense account abuse and falling asleep on the job.’
The company also alleges in court documents that Johnson ‘openly and routinely disparaged the mother of his child and demanded that Everyrealm pay a portion of his wages in cash to avoid garnishment for his child support payments.’
Company executives refused his demand, they claim.
‘Johnson made various inappropriate comments in the workplace regarding other women in his life, hazed a junior female employee by disparaging her as a “rookie” and refusing to meet with her,’ lawyers for the company write in court documents.
They also said Johnson referred to Schwartz, a cofounder at the company as ‘that b****’ and Yorio as ‘that crazy b****.’
The lawyers further write in a Motion to Dismiss that Johnson’s original claim that he was ‘discharged “solely on account of his race” has been cast aside in an effort to avoid arbitration.
‘Aside from his failure to plead a sexual harassment claim, the evidence will show that it was Johnson who encouraged discussions regarding sexuality and promiscuity.’
But Johnson is not the only former employee to make these types of allegations against Everyrealm and its executives.
Former employees Gatsby Frimpong, left, and Kathy Yost, right, have also filed lawsuits against Yario and other executives at Everyrealm
Another African American former employee, Gatsby Frimpong, alleged in a suit filed last week in Manhattan federal court that he was paid less than a white engineering director was for similar work.
He also claims Yario refused to consider him for promotion after he rejected her sexual advances, and once told him at a meeting about engineering and product that ‘it is important [that he ] drench the customer, just like [he] I would do with a woman.
Supposedly, she asked him if he was in a relationship, and on another occasion, he said that she and her husband, Jesse, whom she had hired to work at the company, “were only married in the metaverse.”
A company spokesperson said the allegations made in his lawsuit are “absurd,” alleging that he “worked remotely and Ms. Yario only interacted with him a few times on video calls.”
Meanwhile, 46-year-old Kathy Yost, who claims she met Yario in high school and got a job as a human resources officer after Yario posted online about the job opportunity, has also sued the company for “political and discriminatory and illegal acts” including “sexually suggestive activities”. Observations about the life and orientation of colleagues.
She alleges in her lawsuit, filed in August, that she confided to Yario that she “suffers from alcohol use disorder” in the hope that “Ms. Yario would be her ally and help divert attention from the fact that Ms. Yost doesn’t drink at company meetings.
But Yario allegedly used ‘this highly personal and confidential information to taunt Ms. Yost in front of’ employees by telling them at an event “We need to get Kathy SIX drinks!”
Yost also claims that executives did not accept that she was a single mother, “openly bisexual, disabled, and refused to condone Everyrealm’s discriminatory and illegal policies and acts.”
Her lawsuit says she was fired just one day after informing her superiors that she “could not comply with their clearly illegal, retaliatory and discriminatory personnel policies that made women and other protected groups second-class employees at Everyrealm.”
He says that while working at the company, Yost noticed that employees who questioned the identity of Everyrealm’s Metaflower Super Mega Yacht NFT were fired.
And, his lawsuit says, Yario would refer to an employee with autism as the “Team Mascot” and another with ADHD as a “jerk” and a “jerk.”
Still, the spokesperson says: “These are nothing more than unsubstantiated accusations by a disgruntled ex-employee looking to cause harm to our company.”
He added that the company will defend itself against “false accusations” made by “former employees demanding multi-million dollar settlements.”
“Our company works hard to foster a caring and inclusive workplace and we will continue to defend ourselves against these lawsuits.”
Since then, the company has filed its own legal actions against the plaintiffs in an attempt to get the claims out of litigation and into arbitration.