CBS: No $120 million severance package for Les Moonves following sexual assault report

On December 17, the CBS Board of Directors released a statement saying that the Company will not be paying out a $120 million severance package to former CBS Chairman-CEO Leslie Moonves. That decision on the part of the Columbia Broadcasting System network follows a five-month investigation into Moonves’ conduct, most notably a litany of sexual assault allegations and his attempts to obstruct the investigation, and also the corporate culture at CBS.  MSN  shared a portion of the press release which announced that Moonves will not be receiving any part of that severance package:

“We have determined that there are grounds to terminate for cause, including his willful and material misfeasance, violation of Company policies and breach of his employment contract, as well as his willful failure to cooperate fully with the Company’s investigation. Mr. Moonves will not receive any severance payment from the Company,” the board said in a statement Monday.

CBS let Moonves go from his lofty position at the network in September, “following a New Yorker story in which a dozen women came forward claiming he had sexually harassed or assaulted them,” according to NPR.  Included in the CBS probe and resulting report of which The New York Times received a leaked copy, stated that Moonves “destroyed evidence and misled investigators in an attempt to preserve his reputation and save a lucrative severance deal.” That CBS report leaked to The Times also included several previously undisclosed allegations of sexual misconduct, according to NPR.

Additionally, as The Times’ Rachel Abrams told NPR’s All Things Considered:

“The lawyer said that they investigated 11 of the 17 women who they knew of who had made accusations against Mr. Moonves.  And they make a point multiple times in their report to say that they found the women credible. And by contrast – if I could just read you what they wrote about Mr. Moonves – they said they found him to be evasive and untruthful at times and to have deliberately lied about and minimized the extent of his sexual misconduct.

And the lawyers also wrote that Mr. Moonves engaged in multiple acts of serious, non-consensual sexual misconduct in and outside of the workplace both before and after he came to CBS in 1995.”

Prior to being ousted by CBS in September, the 69-year-old Moonves was considered to be the classic Hollywood mogul, a titan in the entertainment field who “shaped the television landscape for more than 30 years with shows across several networks,” according to The New York Times.

As a producer, he developed hit after hit, including “Full House” in the 1980s and “ER” and “Friends” in the 1990s.  At CBS, he turned a last-place network into the most-watched channel on television with mass-market fare like the police procedural “C.S.I.” and the ratings machine “Big Bang Theory.”

The disgraced Moonves is taking legal action to appeal CBS’ decision to not grant him that $120 million severance package.

~ Posted by: Richard Webster, Ace News Today  /   Connect with Richard on Facebook and Twitter