A new lawsuit claims that former CBS CEO Les Moonves pocketed over $50 million from the sale of his personal stock in CBS after learning that he was being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department.
The claim states that Moonves pocketed just over $155 million in his final two years as head the network from selling stock.
The claims are being made by Gee Samit, who has filed a lawsuit against CBS Corporation, Moonves and acting CEO Joseph Ianniello, who sold $29 million of his own stock as well between 2016 and 2018 according to an amended court filing.
“By late 2017, Defendants were aware that Farrow was investigating and writing an article on CBS, defendant Moonves and the Company’s culture of sexual harassment,” states the complaint.
“Defendants knew that the publication of this article could have a negative impact on the Company and its continuing operations yet they failed to disclose it in their SEC filings.”
The suit is demanding compensatory damages.
“CBS has in place clear policies and procedures relating to CBS stock sales by senior executives of the company. Executives who possess material information about CBS that has not been made public may not use that information in selling CBS stock,” said the company in a statement.
“The vast majority of sales mentioned in this complaint were made as part of pre-planned selling arrangements designed to comply with applicable securities laws. The remaining sales were subject to CBS’ customary pre-clearance policies and procedures and were properly disclosed. While it would not be appropriate to comment on ongoing litigation, we believe that our policies and procedures are fully in compliance with law.”
Moonves is currently challenging the decision made by the CBS board to withhold his $120 million severance package.
The disgraced executive was set to walk away with a $120 million golden parachute if an investigation into his allegations of sexual misconduct found that there were not grounds to terminate him for cause.
Moonves would have also received a additional $65 million from vesting of long-term incentive rewards had he received the $120 million as well, but will also not get any of that money.
That investigation found multiple reasons however according to the network.
In a statement released in December, CBS said that Moonves’ ‘willful and material misfeasance, violation of Company policies and breach of his employment contract, as well as his willful failure to cooperate fully with the Company’s investigation’ justified the board’s decision to oust the president and chairman earlier this year.
There are few specifics at this time, but it was revealed last week that Moonves had given investigators’ his son Charlie’s iPad instead of his own when asked to hand over the tablet.
The New York Times also revealed that investigators met with Moonves four times and found him to be ‘evasive and untruthful at times and to have deliberately lied about and minimized the extent of his sexual misconduct.’
Moonves can still fight the decision through arbitration, and in a statement on Monday his lawyer Andrew Levander said: ‘The conclusions of the CBS board were foreordained and are without merit. Consistent with the pattern of leaks that have permeated this “process,” the press was informed of these baseless conclusions before Mr. Moonves, further damaging his name, reputation, career and legacy.’
CBS hired two law firms to look into the allegations being made about the 69-year-old executive, who was named president of the company in 1995 and in 2016 also became the chairman.
In the wake of the scandal, his wife Julie Chen also left her spot as host of the network’s daytime show The Talk while defending her husband.
Chen is hosting the finale of Celebrity Big Brother tomorrow night, and there is speculation this will be her last show at the network.