Report: Lawyers find that CBS has cause not to give Les Moonves $120 million severance

Les Moonves.
(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Lawyers hired by CBS have found that former CEO Les Moonves, who stepped down in September after several women accused him of sexual misconduct, lied and destroyed evidence in order to save his severance, and the network has justification to withhold that $120 million from him, The New York Times reports.

The Times reviewed a 59-page draft of the report that is expected to be sent to the CBS board by next week. After The New Yorker published the allegations against Moonves in August, CBS hired lawyers to conduct an independent investigation into the matter, and wanted them to determine whether Moonves violated terms of his employment agreement; if he did, the network would have cause to deny him a $120 million severance payment.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.