Danny Moloshok/Reuters
Ousted CBS CEO Leslie Moonves reportedly tried to keep sexual-misconduct allegations against him under wraps by buying the silence of one of his accusers with a job at the TV network. Sources cited by The New York Times on Wednesday say it was the revelation of this job offer that finally turned several members of the CBS board against Moonves. The name of the accuser in question has not been released, but she had reportedly threatened to go public with her allegations, a fact Moonves is said to have hidden from the CBS board. Initially, several board members had reportedly refused to believe the allegations made against Moonves in late July. “We are going to stay in this meeting until midnight if we need to until we get an agreement that we stand 100 percent behind our CEO, and there will be no change in his status,” one board member, William Cohen, reportedly said during a conference call. It was not until board members learned last month that Moonves had left crucial details out of his testimony to outside investigators that they began to doubt his credibility. Nearly two months after first jumping to his defense, members of the CBS board now say it’s unlikely the company will give Moonves any severance pay, despite earlier reports that he could get a whopping $120 million.