Former CBS president and CEO Les Moonves was charged with trying to influence a former Los Angeles police officer who was believed to have leaked inside information about a sexual assault investigation against him. Agreed to pay a $1,250 fine.
According to legal documents, Moonves tried to dissuade former Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Corey Palka from investigating a criminal investigation into allegations that the former CBS CEO sexually assaulted a former employee. obtained According to NBC News.
The former chief executive reportedly agreed to pay an $11,250 fine earlier this month after being penalized by the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission for violating the city’s ethics code.
Mr. Palka, who was head of the agency’s Hollywood division in 2017, pledged allegiance to Mr. Moonves and disclosed confidential information about a criminal investigation in which Mr. Moonves was accused of sexual assault against former employee Phyllis Gottlieb. It was leaked to Mr. Moonves.
The Ethics Commission cited a November 2017 meeting between Moonves and Palka at a Westlake Village restaurant where the two allegedly discussed confidential information related to an LAPD investigation.
“They met for approximately one hour and discussed the LAPD investigation,” the ethics brief states. “This meeting was not part of an official investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department.”
The meeting was reportedly followed up via text message in December to further discuss the incident.
In 2017, as the #MeToo movement gained momentum, Gottlieb claimed that Moonves assaulted her in 1986 while working for an entertainment company. However, the statute of limitations has expired and criminal charges cannot be filed.
In November 2022, the Los Angeles Police Department announced that it would launch an internal investigation into Palca’s alleged information leaks.
“I am beyond outraged,” Police Commissioner William Briggs said. “This is an alarming example of what some people call old-fashioned nepotism, which goes to the heart of corruption.”
Palka’s relationship with Moonves dates back to 2008, and Palka worked as Moonves’ security guard at the Grammy Awards until 2014, the ethics investigation said.
In 2022, the New York State Attorney General’s Office alleged that Moonves had profited from hiding negative information from investors and the public, and that the former CBS CEO’s intervention in the Los Angeles Police Department investigation violated the state’s insider trading laws. It was announced that it would be.
“As a publicly traded company, CBS has failed in its most basic obligation to be honest and transparent with the public and its investors,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement.
As a result, Moonves reportedly agreed to pay a $30.5 million fine.
Mr. Moonves resigned from CBS in 2018 after at least 12 women accused him of sexual assault, which all former CBS executives have denied.
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