Feb. 17 (UPI) — Former CBS President and CEO Leslie Moonves paid a fine of more than $11,000 for trying to influence a former Los Angeles police captain to leak information, according to newly public city documents.
Documents released Friday by the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission and obtained by KNBC-TV indicated Moonves admitted to the infraction and agreed this month to pay $11,250 for violating the city’s ethics code.
The commission said former LAPD Capt. Corey Palka provided Moonves with classified information about the department’s investigation into him and a woman who in 2022 accused the former media industry titan of sexually assaulting her while she worked for him in 1986.
Moonves has denied the allegations.
The ethics commission said Palka met with Moonves for about an hour in 2017 at a restaurant in Westlake Village to share confidential information.
“The meeting was not part of the official investigation by the LAPD,” according to the ethics summary.
Palka, who has since retired from the force, told the broadcaster he was unaware of allegations that he had leaked confidential information, which was first revealed in 2022 in an insider trading settlement between Moonves and the New York Attorney General’s Office.
Attorney General Letitia James had launched a probe into the numerous sexual assault allegations against Moonves and whether New York-based CBS Corp. violated Securities and Exchange Commission rules by not disclosing the information to shareholders sooner.
Moonves and CBS paid a $30.5 million settlement in the New York case.
Embroiled in controversy, Moonves resigned from CBS in 2018 after at least 12 women accused him of sexual assault. He has denied the allegations.
Palka sent a message to Moonves after his resignation, according to the ethics finding.
“I’m deeply sorry this happened. I will always stand with, by and pledge my allegiance to you,” Palka says in the document, according to KNBC.
The LAPD in 2022 opened an internal investigation into Palka and to determine whether any other LAPD officers were involved.
“I am beyond outraged,” Los Angeles Police Commission President William Briggs said in an apology for the leaks during a police board meeting that year. “This is a stunning example of what some refer to as old-time cronyism, that goes to the heart of corruption.”