Les Moonves leaves CBS, $20 million to be donated to #MeToo movement

Following numerous sexual harassment allegations against Les Moonves, the CBS head will step down from the company "effective immediately."

On Sunday, CBS announced it had reached a settlement with Moonves, a 24-year veteran of the company, and that he and CBS will donate $20 million to organizations that support the #MeToo movement.

The donation will be deducted from severance benefits which may be due to Moonves, and any payments made in future will be dependent on results of a third-party investigation by law firms Covington & Burling and Debevoise & Plimpton.

CBS' announcement comes after six more women accused Moonves of misconduct between the 1980s and the early-2000s, according to a report by The New Yorker's Ronan Farrow.

As with earlier allegations, the women in the latest batch of accusations say their careers have suffered as a result of rejecting Moonves' advances.

Veteran TV executive Phyllis Golden-Gottlieb told Farrow she filed a complaint of sexual assault to the Los Angeles Police Department last year, but although law enforcement sources considered her allegations "credible and consistent ... prosecutors declined to pursue charges because the statutes of limitations for the crimes had expired."

"He absolutely ruined my career," she told Farrow. Moonves denied the accusations in a statement.

"The appalling accusations in this article are untrue. What is true is that I had consensual relations with three of the women some 25 years ago before I came to CBS. And I have never used my position to hinder the advancement or careers of women," the statement to The New Yorker read.

"In my 40 years of work, I have never before heard of such disturbing accusations. I can only surmise they are surfacing now for the first time, decades later, as part of a concerted effort by others to destroy my name, my reputation, and my career. Anyone who knows me knows that the person described in this article is not me."

In a statement to Mashable via email, the Time's Up movement against systemic sexual abuse in Hollywood and other industries, said these allegations "speak to a culture of toxic complicity at CBS, where the safety of women was continuously ignored to protect the careers of powerful men and the corporation."

"The CBS Board of Directors has an obligation to move swiftly and decisively to create a safe work environment for all and rid the company of this toxic culture."