CNBC Anchor Alleges NBC CEO Pressured Her for Years

A CNBC journalist accused Jeff Shell, the former chief executive of NBCUniversal, of pressuring her for sex over a period of years during her career at the business news network, according to a copy of her complaint reviewed by The New York Times.

The complaint, lodged in late March by Hadley Gamble, an anchor and senior international correspondent, kicked off an investigation that led to Mr. Shell’s dismissal last week, sending shock waves across a far-flung media empire that includes NBC News, the Universal movie studio and DreamWorks Animation.

Hadley Gamble

Less than a page of Ms. Gamble’s complaint, which is more than a dozen pages, focused on allegations of sexual harassment by Mr. Shell. Much of the complaint raised accusations of bullying and discrimination at CNBC, saying women at the network’s international division were harassed by their male colleagues on several different occasions.

Comcast, NBCUniversal’s parent company, hired the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to investigate the complaint after it was sent to the company’s executives in New York and London

Last week, Comcast said that it had found evidence to corroborate allegations of sexual harassment against Mr. Shell and that it had fired him for cause. The company is not paying him severance.

Shell said in a statement that he and Ms. Gamble had a “mutual and consensual relationship” and that “the complaint wildly misrepresents the facts of what happened.”