The investigators’ report, seen by The New York Times, jeopardizes a sizeable, $100 million settlement sum for former CBS CEO Les Moonves, as it accuses him, in addition to over a dozen sexual misconduct allegations, of having a special employee “on call” to perform oral sex on him, as well as destroying the evidence and lying to investigators.
The new, previously unknown, facts are all stated in black and white in a 59-page draft report, which attempts to show that Moonves, who stepped down from his CBS chief post back in September after facing multiple sexual abuse allegations, violated the terms of his employment agreement, which could allow the media outlet to fire him for a formal cause without paying him a severance compensation.
Investigators pointed out that when talking to Moonves about the allegations he was “evasive and untruthful at times”, as well as “deliberately lied about and minimized the extent of his sexual misconduct”. In the course of the probe, investigators reportedly learnt about a number of additional allegations targeting Moonves, thereby bringing the total number of accusers to 17.
In a part of the report on the employee specially reserved by Moonves to be close at hand for oral sex, the report alleges that a number of employees were aware of it and believed that the woman was protected from discipline or termination as a result.
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The report, which is son due to be presented to the CBS board, also has it that at least one board member, along with communications head Gil Schwartz, had been aware of at least one allegation against him, but instead of revealing it, the employee defended Moonves, who denies forcing anyone into unwanted sexual intercourse with him. Meanwhile, Schwartz, on learning about the allegation, drafted a resignation letter for Moonves in 2017, but it was never signed.