CBS to set aside US$120 million for Moonves’ severance deal amid claims of sexual misconduct

CBS said in a regulatory filing on Monday that it would contribute US$120 million to a trust that could pay a massive severance – or none at all – to its departing chief executive, Leslie Moonves, depending on the results of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct. The filing follows the company’s announcement on Sunday that its powerful long-time chief executive was resigning amid allegations of a range of misdeeds, including harassment, assault and career retaliation.

The filing says that if the CBS board finds that the company can fire Moonves “for cause” and he does not demand arbitration, he would not be paid the severance money. But if the board finds that the company is not entitled to dismiss Moonves for those reasons, Moonves would receive the US$120 million in the trust’s assets. The filing also says Moonves agreed to perform “transition advisory services” for a year (or until the board determines whether he can be fired “for cause”) and that CBS will provide office services and security services for up to two years after his resignation.

In the filing, the company also said it would make contributions worth US$20 million to one or more charities “that support the #MeToo movement and equality for women in the workplace.” That figure was subtracted from a US$140 million potential severance payment for Moonves that was negotiated down, according to a person briefed on the negotiations. An analysis done in late July by the executive compensation research firm Equilar found that Moonves’s original severance payment, were he to be fired “without cause”, would be valued at an estimated US$238 million.

The filing follows a whirlwind few weeks for the company and for Moonves, a media titan who has long been one of the most highly compensated chief executives in America and had worked at CBS for more than two decades. In an article by The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow earlier in the summer, six women accused Moonves of sexual misconduct. On the New Yorker’s website on Sunday, six additional women made new claims of sexual harassment and assault in incidents they said occurred between the 1980s and the early 2000s.

In a statement made late on Sunday and reported in The Washington Post, Moonves said, “It has been an incredible privilege to lead CBS’s renaissance and transformation into a leading global media company.” He said that “untrue allegations from decades ago are now being made against me that are not consistent with who I am … I am deeply saddened to be leaving the company.”

In a statement from Moonves reported by the New Yorker on Sunday, he said, “The appalling accusations in this article are untrue” and that while he did have “consensual relations with three of the women some 25 years ago before I came to CBS”, he had “never used my position to hinder the advancement or careers of women”.