Disgraced Former PulteGroup Exec. Brandon Jones is Sued by Pulte Family for Alleged Twitter Harassment Campaign
Shane Trejo
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The Pulte family is suing a since-fired executive of the corporation that holds their name over an alleged campaign of harassment initiated through a network of bots and phony accounts on Twitter.
The Pulte family is accusing former PulteGroup, Inc. executive Brandon Jones of launching a Twitter harassment campaign against the late PulteGroup founder William J. Pulte. His grandson Bill Pulte said the lawsuit is being filed to “protect the legacy of Pulte Homes, my grandfather who was my mentor and partner, as well as my own reputation and to prevent Jones from doing irreparable harm through his continued spreading of vicious lies.”
PulteGroup is a home building company that was initially founded in the 1950s and now employs over 6,000 people. William J. Pulte, the group’s founder, was a renowned pioneer who reinvented America’s infrastructure and bettered the lives of countless Americans through capitalistic innovation in the home building industry.
“He was a student of William Levitt and Henry Ford,” Bill Pulte said at the time of his grandfather’s passing. “He started out building one home, then two homes, then three homes. Then he took it to the subdivision, then took it to cities across America.”
“He was always thinking about the consumer, and it allowed him to be competitive with anyone,” Bill Pulte added.
After expanding from a small construction company into a massive conglomerate throughout the course of many decades, William J. Pulte passed away in 2018 at the age of 85 with a legacy as one of America’s greatest, self-made entrepreneurs and philanthropists, helping create affordable housing for thousands of families. Pulte’s family is suing Jones to redeem his legacy.
“Having recently been made aware of certain social media activity by a company executive, we are conducting a thorough investigation to determine the facts and whether there has been a violation of our company’s standards and policies,” a PulteGroup spokesman stated in response to news of the lawsuit. PulteGroup has since terminated Jones following their investigation.
Jones was named to be the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of PulteGroup in October and was set to begin in the role officially as of Jan. 1, 2023. Even before assuming the rule of COO, Jones allegedly created bogus Twitter profiles to harass Pulte and denigrate his family. Jones is accused of creating a fake profile of journalist, expropriating the identity of a deceased man, and setting up bots to manipulate public opinion as part of an attempted hostile takeover of sorts.
“The Pulte Family, the founding family of PulteGroup, is utterly shocked that this behavior is being done by a Fortune 500 Executive, especially at our beloved Pulte Homes, and we have asked the independent board members of PulteGroup, who each have the ability to exercise their fiduciary duties to assist in any investigation to determine if any crimes were committed by Brandon Jones, including his undisclosed promotion of PulteGroup stock and information that may have been confidential,” said Bill Pulte, who served as director of PulteGroup from 2016 to 2020 and now serves as CEO of Pulte Capital.
Big League Politics will continue to cover this lawsuit as the case is heard in court.
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