Les Moonves isn’t gone yet.
Months after his ouster from CBS, the ex-CEO has started a company in West Hollywood and his old workplace is footing the bill, according to The New York Times.
On Friday, The Times reported that the former executive had set up shop at 9000 Sunset Boulevard with a business called Moon Rise Unlimited. A late October filing with California’s secretary of state says the new enterprise is for “entertainment services.”
The filing, the Times reported, also indicates he created two more entities in that time ― Moon Rise Productions for “film and television production” and Moon Rise Technologies for “streaming services and distribution.”
Meanwhile, Moonves and CBS remain in a fight over his $120 million severance package, which has been jeopardized by the allegations of sexual misconduct against him for which he was fired. Moonves has denied those claims.
Although CBS said in December that he wouldn’t receive a penny of his exit deal, the Times pointed out that one of the stipulations requires the company to cover the cost of Moonves’ “office services” throughout a full year, regardless of the reason for his dismissal.
Moonves had been one of the media industry’s most powerful players for decades until last August when The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow revealed that a handful of women claimed to have been harassed by the entertainment mogul. The number of stories eventually multiplied, prompting Moonves to step down.