An investigation has allegedly found that a commanding officer in the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) tipped off former CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves about a confidential sexual assault complaint against him and worked with the company for months to ensure the complaint did not become public knowledge.
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced the results of the investigation in a 37-page report (pdf) published on Wednesday.
In a statement, James said the investigation conducted by her office had found that a complainant had visited an LAPD station house in the Hollywood division on Nov. 10, 2017, to report a sexual assault by Moonves in the 1980s before he was employed at CBS.
The complaint was marked “confidential” multiple times, James said. However, later that night, an LAPD commanding officer with the Hollywood division allegedly called the Senior Vice President of Talent Relations and Special Events at CBS, Ian Metrose, and left the following voicemail: “I know we haven’t talked in a while. I am a captain at LAPD Hollywood. Somebody walked in the station about a couple hours ago and made allegations against your boss regarding a sexual assault.”
The voicemail continued: “It’s confidential, as you know, but call me, and I can give you some of the details and let you know what the allegation is before it goes to the media or gets out. So, all right, talk to you after a while. Bye.”
James’s report claims that the officer who phoned Metrose knew him personally because he had been hired by CBS to work as Moonves security aid at the Grammy awards from 2008 to 2014.
Metrose allegedly alerted his supervisors about the complaint the following day, according to the report, and the LAPD commanding officer allegedly provided Moonves and CBS executives with the unredacted police report, thus revealing the complainant’s identity and personal information.
CBS Execs ‘Knew About Multiple Allegations Of Sexual Assault’
Over the next few months, CBS executives began investigating the victim’s personal circumstances, including information about her family, according to the report, and her motivations for filing the report.
Meanwhile, the LAPD officer continued to provide CBS executives with updates about the police’s investigation into the sexual assault complaint, according to the report.
“Hopefully, we can kill media from PD. Then figure [sic] what [Complainant #1] wants,” Moonves wrote to the captain and a CBS assistant in one text message featured in the report.
More than eight months passed before the public became aware of the allegations against Moonves.
James said that the investigation ultimately found that CBS and its senior leadership knew about multiple allegations of sexual assault made against the former CBS chief executive and intentionally concealed those allegations from regulators, shareholders, and the public for months.
“Over the course of several months, the LAPD captain continued to secretly provide Mr. Moonves and CBS executives with status updates on the LAPD’s investigation,” a statement from her office read. “The LAPD captain made it clear that he was willing to intervene on Mr. Moonves’ behalf and Mr. Moonves solicited his assistance. He assured CBS executives that he had spoken to his contacts within the LAPD and implemented controls to prevent news of the police report from leaking to the press from the LAPD.”
Moonves resigned as the head of CBS in 2018 after facing a string of sexual assault and harassment allegations from at least 12 women.
Additionally, the New York Attorney General said the probe found that one senior executive at CBS, former chief communications officer Gil Schwartz, knew about the allegations and the LAPD police report, and sold 160,709 shares of his CBS stock at an average weighted price of $55.08 for a total of $8,851,852 six weeks before the news went public.
“The stock dropped 10.9 percent from the day before the news broke to the trading day after,” James said. Schwartz died in 2020.
Million-Dollar Payouts
James said that as a result of her findings, her office has reached an agreement with CBS, which will pay $28 million to the state, of which $22 million will go back to CBS shareholders and $6 million to “strengthening mechanisms for reporting and investigating complaints of sexual harassment and assault.”
Additionally, every single stock trade made by a senior executive of CBS will need to be specifically approved by the company’s chief legal officer going forward.
Moonves will also pay $2.5 million, which will go toward CBS shareholders. In total, CBS shareholders will receive $24.5 million. Moonves will also not be allowed to serve as an officer or director of any public company doing business in New York without written approval by the Attorney General for the next five years.
CBS will also have to conduct annual employee surveys regarding the work climate and submit sexual harassment training to the attorney general for review, among other requirements as part of the agreement.
CBS and Viacom merged in 2019 and later changed the company’s name to Paramount Global.
“We are pleased to resolve this matter concerning events from 2018 with the New York Attorney General’s office, without any admission of liability or wrongdoing,” a Paramount spokesperson told CNBC on Wednesday. “The matter involved alleged misconduct by CBS’s former CEO, who was terminated for cause in 2018, and does not relate in any way to the current company.”
In a statement, the LAPD said that it is fully cooperating with the New York and California Attorney General offices in the investigation of its former Hollywood Division command officer, and that it has also launched its own internal investigation regarding the “conduct of the retired command officer as well as to identify any other member(s) of the organization that may have been involved.”
Chief Michel Moore called the former Captain’s alleged actions “appalling” and “a breach of trust.”
The Epoch Times has contacted a Paramount spokesperson for comment.
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Katabella Roberts is a news writer for The Epoch Times, focusing primarily on the United States, world, and business news.
