LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess) Former CBS Corp. CEO Les Moonves will pursue an arbitration claim to fight CBS for the $120 million severance he has been denied by the company’s board of directors.
CBS says Moonves was fired for cause after an investigation determined Moonves was guilty of sexual misbehavior. CBS disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that Moonves has informed the company he plans to take the decision to arbitration, according to Variety.
“On January 16, 2019, Mr. Moonves notified the Company of his election to demand binding arbitration with respect to this matter. The Company does not intend to comment further on this matter during the pendency of the arbitration proceedings,” the filing stated.
It has been expected that Moonves would fight the decision. His attorney, Andrew Lavender, said, “The conclusions of the CBS board were foreordained and are without merit.”
Moonves was entitled to the money unless CBS found that there was enough evidence of misconduct to show that he should not receive it. The company hired a team that interviewed as many as 300 people to get to the bottom of the allegations and concluded, after months of investigation, that numerous claims against Moonves had merit.
