Pulte Family says terminating Brandon Jones ‘necessary first step’

The Pulte Family, the founding family of PulteGroup, issued the following statement following the termination of Brandon Jones, recently named Chief Operating Officer by CEO Ryan Marshall: "Today, the Board of Directors took a necessary, first step in limiting any future legal liability in acknowledging the defamatory Bot Network ran on company time by Brandon Jones who was 2nd-in-command at the Homebuilder the Pulte Family and Employees built. I attempted to quietly settle this in private correspondence with my former colleagues on the Board of Directors on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before being forced to file a lawsuit to get justice for the shareholders and my family. Now that the preliminary investigation done by King & Spalding LLP determined that the Bot Attacks were covertly operated by Brandon Jones, The Pulte Family expects the Board of Directors to honor their fiduciary obligations to the shareholders and retain a white-shoe law firm, unconnected to existing contracts paid by Management, to conduct an independent investigation to determine if any SEC regulations, federal law, and other company policies were broken. This addresses existing liabilities hidden from shareholders. While management is threatening layoffs and failing to diversify the management team, Jones, as a member of management, has found time to run secret Twitter accounts whilst enforcing PulteGroup social media policies on employees at the same time. I will continue to fight for Pulte Homes, our shareholders, and its employees," said Bill Pulte, CEO of Pulte Capital and a former Director of PulteGroup. On December 14, the Pulte Family filed a civil complaint against Brandon Jones, for allegedly tortiously interfering, stalking, harassing, and defaming the company’s founder, William J. Pulte, his grandson Bill Pulte, and his family through Jones’ creation of "a sophisticated network of Twitter bots." The Pulte Family, four days ago, privately called on the independent members of the Board of Directors to conduct an independent investigation into Mr. Jones. Today, PulteGroup issued a press release announcing that Jones has been terminated and will leave the company effective immediately.