Les Moonves will not get his $120 million severance from CBS, board says

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Dec. 17, 2018 / 10:50 PM GMT

By Claire Atkinson

The CBS board of directors said Monday that it will not pay former Chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves the $120 million in severance that was due per his contract.

“With regard to Mr. Moonves, 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,” the board said in a statement.

The board also cited what they called their former chief executive’s “willful failure to cooperate fully” with an investigation of his conduct.

“Mr. Moonves will not receive any severance payment from the Company,” the statement read.

Moonves agreed to depart CBS in September amid sexual misconduct allegations but he had believed he was due a large severance package and that he had not broken the terms of his contract.

A spokesman for the lawyer for Moonves was not immediately available for a response. Sources close to Moonves had told NBC News last week that Moonves would not give up his compensation package without a fight.

While at CBS, he was one of the stock market’s most highly compensated executives, earnings $69 million per year.

Moonves has been accused of sexual harassment or assault by 12 women.

His attorney, Andrew Levander, has told The New York Times that told that Moonves “denies having any nonconsensual sexual relation” and that he had “cooperated extensively and fully with investigators.”