Former CBS head Les Moonves will not receive any of his expected $120 million severance payout after the board determined he misled the company about sexual misconduct allegations and tried to hide key evidence from investigators.
CBS on Monday announced that rather than cordially parting ways with Moonves, who left in September following said allegations, the former CEO will be fired for just cause, denying him a lucrative exit payout.
“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,” the CBS board of directors said in a statement.
The CBS board had met multiple times last week and made the decision based on an investigation conducted by lawyers in the wake of Moonves’ ouster.
A draft of the report obtained by the New York Times earlier this month said that 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 the report, Moonves allegedly deleted text messages and gave investigators his son’s iPad, instead of his own.
This story is developing and will be updated.