Former Halo art director Glenn Israel has accused Pierre Hintze of committing a criminal offense and alleged that Microsoft's employee relations personnel intentionally concealed it.
In a LinkedIn post, Israel wrote that he "witnessed and documented in real time a criminal offense in Washington state committed by Pierre Hintze." He also named Chris Matthews and Damon Conn as allegedly facilitating the incident. For those who don't know, Pierre Hintze is the VP Head of Studio at Microsoft, while Chris Matthews is Halo Studios' art director, and Damon Conn is an executive producer at Halo Studios.
Israel accused members of Microsoft's Global Employee Relations team of burying the matter. It should be noted the post does not specify the offense allegedly committed by Hintze, publish the documentation he says he collected, or provide a police report or court finding. So, for now, his account remains an allegation, not an established criminal finding.
The LinkedIn post from Israel also questioned why the people he named apparently remained employed while more than 200 developers lost their jobs. Separately, a supplied screenshot shows a YouTube account identifying itself as Israel claiming firsthand knowledge of job-applicant blacklisting. The comment suggests creators could have faced similar treatment, but does not claim firsthand knowledge of a creator blacklist.
Halo community director Brian Jarrard has denied the separate allegation that studio leadership blacklisted critical creators. However, Jarrard didn't deny the allegation that Hintze, Matthews, Conn, and employees at Microsoft's Global Employee Relations team were involved in blacklisting job applicants illegally, and a subsequent cover-up.
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For now, evidence on this story is quite thin besides accusations and denials. Until hard evidence surfaces with receipts, take this information with a healthy grain of skepticism.
