Leslie Moonves, the CBS Corporation’s former chief executive, is said to be misleading the company regarding multiple allegations of sexual misconduct and also tried hiding the evidence in a frenzied attempt for saving his legacy to get a lucrative severance.
The company won’t give the exit payout of $120 million to Mr Moonves. In a statement made on Monday, the CBS board said,
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.
After several meetings and reviewing information collected by the lawyers, the board decided on Monday that investigation will be carried out for claims against Mr Moonves. As per the earlier draft of the investigation report, Mr Moonves is reported to be involved in several serious non-consensual sexual misconduct, not only at the workplace but outside as well and he started this before he joined CBS in 1995.
Sufficient evidence has been gathered by the lawyers that shows that violation of CBS policies by Mr Moonves. He even lied to the investigators and deleted texts which were a proof of his attempt to silence the accuser. All allegations were denied by him and he assured that every sexual act was done with consensus only.
As per the investigators, Mr Moonves is being untruthful and evasive. He has lied deliberately and also minimized the extent of his sexual misconduct.
Mr Moonves still has the option of fighting for his severance through arbitration and contest the ruling of the board. He could argue that the exit agreement’s confidentiality terms have been violated by the company when the internal investigation was made public.
Andrew Levander said that the board’s conclusions are baseless and they are without any merit.
Source: NY Times and Daily Mail
