CBS rejects Moonves US$120M exit pay
‘Grounds to terminate for cause’
CBS Corp., battered by scandal and facing a leadership vacuum, said its former chief executive, Leslie Moonves, will not receive his US$120-million exit payout because his firing was justified.
The board said Moonves misled the company about multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and tried to hide evidence as he made a frenzied attempt to save his legacy and reap a lucrative severance.
“We have determined that there are grounds to terminate for cause, including his wilful and material misfeasance, violation of company policies and breach of his employment contract, as well as his wilful failure to co-operate fully with the company’s investigation,” the board said in a statement Monday.
The board came to its decision after reviewing information gathered by lawyers hired by the company to investigate claims against Moonves, who was forced
HIS WILFUL AND MATERIAL MISFEASANCE, VIOLATION OF COMPANY POLICIES.
out in September, as well as the broader workplace culture at the network.
Moonves “engaged in multiple acts of serious nonconsensual sexual misconduct in and outside of the workplace, both before and after he came to CBS in 1995,” according to a draft of the investigators’ report.
The lawyers had gathered ample evidence showing Moonves had violated CBS policies, including lying to investigators and deleting texts that revealed his attempts to silence an accuser. Moonves, 69, has denied all the allegations and said any sexual acts he engaged in were consensual.
The investigators found Moonves to be “evasive and untruthful at times and to have deliberately lied about and minimized the extent of his sexual misconduct,” according to the draft report.
Moonves could still contest the board’s ruling.
He shaped the television landscape for more than 30 years with shows across several networks. But by September, his career came to a sordid end when he negotiated his exit shortly after 12 women told The New Yorker that he had sexually harassed or assaulted them.