Report: Moonves obstructed CBS inquiry, lied about abuse
Facing multiple sexual misconduct allegations and fearing his career as an entertainment titan was over, Leslie Moonves, the chief executive of CBS, destroyed evidence and misled investigators in an attempt to preserve his reputation and save a lucrative severance deal, according to a draft of a report prepared for the company’s board.
The report, by lawyers hired by the network, says the company has justification to deny Moonves his $120 million severance. Moonves reigned as one of Hollywood’s most successful and celebrated executives for decades before being forced to step down in September after allegations by numerous women.
The report, a copy of which was reviewed by The New York Times, says 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.” The report includes previously undisclosed allegations of sexual misconduct against him.
The lawyers who conducted the inquiry wrote that they had spoken with Moonves four times and found him to be “evasive and untruthful at times and to have deliberately lied about and minimized the extent of his sexual misconduct.”
Moonves shaped the television landscape for more than 30 years. Even before his CBS tenure, he had an outsize role in producing shows like the 1980s sitcom “Full House” and the 1990s megahits “ER” and “Friends.” At CBS, he turned around a moribund network with audience-friendly smashes like “Survivor,” the police procedural “CSI” and its multiple spinoffs, and sitcoms like “How I Met Your Mother” and “Big Bang Theory.” For the past decade, CBS has been the most-watched network.
But in September, Moonves’ run at the network ended in ignominious fashion when he negotiated his exit shortly after 12 women told The New Yorker that he had sexually harassed or assaulted them. Since then, the possibility that he could still receive his lucrative exit package has infuriated many people.
CBS’ board hired two law firms, Debevoise & Plimpton and Covington & Burling, to conduct an independent investigation to determine, in part, if Moonves violated the terms of his employment agreement. That would allow the company to fire him for cause and withhold his severance.
“Based on the facts developed to date, we believe that the board would have multiple bases upon which to conclude that the company was entitled to terminate Moonves for cause,” the report says.
Andrew J. Levander, Moonves’ lawyer, said Moonves “denies having any nonconsensual sexual relation” and “cooperated extensively and fully with investigators.”
As part of their investigation, the lawyers wrote that they had interviewed 11 of the 17 women who they knew had accused Moonves of misconduct or harassment and found their accounts to be credible. Most of the alleged incidents occurred many years ago.
Investigators are expected to present the 59-page report to CBS’ board ahead of the company’s annual meeting next week. The copy viewed by The Times was drafted in late November and could be adjusted before it is presented to the full board.
The board is unlikely to make any determinations on the fate of Moonves next week, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss board business. The company had previously said it expected to conclude the investigation by the end of January.
Investigators wrote that they had found that Moonves “received oral sex from at least 4 CBS employees under circumstances that sound transactional and improper to the extent that there was no hint of any relationship, romance, or reciprocity (especially given what we know about his history of more or less forced oral sex with women with whom he has no ongoing relationship).”
Lawyers were not able to speak directly with these women, but determined that “such a pattern arguably constitutes willful misfeasance and violation of the company’s sexual harassment policy.”
Investigators wrote that they had received “multiple reports” about a network employee who was “on call” to perform oral sex on Moonves.
“A number of employees were aware of this and believed that the woman was protected from discipline or termination as a result of it,” the lawyers wrote. “Moonves admitted to receiving oral sex from the woman, his subordinate, in his office, but described it as consensual.”
The woman did not respond to the investigators’ requests for an interview.
Levander, Moonves’ lawyer, said Moonves had “never put or kept someone on the payroll for the purpose of sex.”
CBS declined to comment. Moonves’ marriage in 2004 to Julie Chen, now the host of “Big Brother,” appears to have been a “bright line” after which his sexual misconduct seemed to have stopped, according to the report.