Given that key HR people at Uber come from Google, is it possible that Uber senior management actually knew about the issues surrounding their star SVP hire from Google when they hired him and were OK with it until reporters were tipped off due to current events and they started sniffing around? I am a little dubious of Uber's narrative that they first found out about this from reporters and fired him soon after.

Every asshole I've ever known in tech got flagged by an interviewer during the hiring process, but the people making the hiring decision ignored the feedback. Often the person doing the flagging was female, or the hiring manager was desperate for a body, or it was otherwise easy for them to justify their decision to themselves. And in every case it wound up costing the company other, productive employees and millions of dollars.

It's very easy for assholes to 'hide' their assholishness if the people with power aren't looking for it, and won't listen to the people who see it. However, even people like that are now on notice that Uber employees are tainted.