Former CBS chief to get nothing from exit package

NEW YORK • Former CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves, who led the American media organisation for 15 years before he was ousted in 2018, will receive nothing from the US$120 million (S$160 million) the company had set aside in a potential severance package, according to a federal filing last Friday.

Moonves left CBS on Sept 9, 2018, after more than a dozen women accused him of sexual misconduct, allegations that appeared in two articles in The New Yorker by journalist Ronan Farrow.

He has denied the allegations.

That October, as part of a separation agreement, the CBS board placed US$120 million in a so-called grantor trust.

That money would go to Moonves if the company found that there had been no grounds to fire him under his contract.

In December 2018, the board said it had determined that Moonves was indeed fired for cause, citing "wilful and material misfeasance, violation of company policies and breach of his employment contract" in a statement at the time.

Moonves disputed that finding and started arbitration proceedings concerning the possible exit package in January 2019.

Last Friday, the matter came to a resolution, according to a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.

"The assets of the grantor trust will revert to the company in their entirety," it said.

Moonves, 71, was one of the most prominent figures to be toppled by the #MeToo movement.

Other powerful men in the media and entertainment businesses whose careers came to an end after they were accused of sexual misconduct included Fox News chief executive Roger Ailes and film mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Ailes died in 2017, months after leaving the network he had helped create, and Weinstein fell from power in 2017 and was sentenced last year to 23 years in prison for sex crimes against six women.

NYTIMES