Chris Cuomo Seeking $125 Million in Arbitration Months After Being Fired by CNN

Theo Wargo/Getty Chris Cuomo

The fallout from Chris Cuomo's ouster from CNN continues, with the former anchor now seeking a $125 million arbitration award as part of his claim that he was wrongly terminated.

The increasingly tangled saga began Dec. 1 when CNN announced it had suspended the Cuomo Prime Time anchor, 51, for his involvement in defending his brother, disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who had resigned from office amid multiple sexual harassment and misconduct allegations. (The elder Cuomo denies intentionally acting inappropriately or committing any crimes.)

Chris' suspension, the network said at the time, was "pending further evaluation."

Days later, Chris was fired by CNN. "We retained a respected law firm to conduct a review, and have terminated him, effective immediately," the network said.

Amid CNN's internal inquiry, Jeff Zucker, president of CNN Worldwide, was forced to step down in early February for failing to disclose a "consensual relationship" with a colleague, revealed to be Chief Marketing Officer Allison Gollust. Gollust also left CNN as a result.

The relationship, the couple said, came up as a part of CNN's investigation into Chris.

He claims his firing was without merit and, in a demand for arbitration filed Wednesday, argued that it constituted a breach of his employment agreement with CNN.

A network spokesperson declined to comment to PEOPLE on Chris' latest move.

According to the filing, which was obtained by PEOPLE, CNN allegedly didn't object to Cuomo's interactions with his brother and or the governor's staffers. Instead, the filing claims, "CNN, including Zucker and Gollust, did everything it could to take advantage of Cuomo's family relationship with one of the most popular politicians in the country at the beginning of a global public health crisis."

"CNN even broke its own policy to take advantage of that relationship in the name of ratings and advertising dollars," Chris says in his filing.

Bryan Freedman, one of Chris' attorneys, said in a statement shared with PEOPLE: "It should by now be obvious that Chris Cuomo did not lie to CNN about helping his brother. In fact, as the limited information released from WarnerMedia's investigation makes clear, CNN's highest-level executives not only knew about Chris's involvement in helping his brother but also actively assisted the Governor, both through Chris and directly themselves."

The statement continued: "As CNN has admitted, network standards were changed in a calculated decision to boost ratings. When those practices were called into question, Chris was made the scapegoat. The legal action filed today makes clear that CNN wrongfully terminated Chris and further violated the express terms of his employment agreement by allowing its employees to disparage him. Chris is owed a full apology from those responsible."

The demand for arbitration further contends that the network "allowed its employees to publicly slam [Chris] Cuomo even before CNN took any steps to discipline him," specifically calling out fellow anchor Jake Tapper for his on-air criticism.

"As a direct result of CNN's calculated efforts to tar and feather him, Cuomo is now untouchable in the world of broadcast journalism, effectively bringing his storied career to a premature end and costing him decades of earnings, exceeding $125 million in consequential damages," his filing alleges.

RELATED: Chris Cuomo Had Bigger Role in Andrew Cuomo Sexual Harassment Defense Strategy, Records Show

In initially announcing Chris' firing, CNN said that, in the process of its review into how he may have helped his brother, "additional information [had] come to light."

By February, new details had emerged suggesting that Chris' exit from the network could have also been due in part to an accusation by a former colleague from another network who said he had allegedly sexually assaulted her in his office years earlier — which he adamantly denies.

A source likewise disputed that this allegation was related to his termination. (He has not been charged with any crime.)

As The New York Times reported in February, the woman's accusation came to light before Chris had been let go via a letter sent to a CNN lawyer last year from attorney Debra S. Katz, who said she was representing an anonymous client who had worked with Chris at ABC News.

That letter stated that the woman was a temp at ABC in 2011 but was looking for permanent employment when she accepted an invitation to have lunch with Chris, who had previously offered her career advice, according to the Times.

Once in his office, the letter reportedly claimed, Chris assaulted the woman and she fled the office.

A spokesman for Chris disputed the woman's account in a statement shared with PEOPLE in February. "As Mr. Cuomo has stated previously, the allegations in the anonymous letter are false," the spokesman said at the time. "He was never asked about the allegations prior to being terminated nor given an opportunity to respond to the allegations."

The letter from Katz further claimed that Cuomo attempted to "silence" the woman from going forward with her story by reaching out under the pretense of speaking to her about a segment on CNN about the company where she was working in public relations.

"After years without any substantive communication from Mr. Cuomo whatsoever, Ms. Doe suspected he was concerned about her coming forward publicly with her allegations and wanted to use the proposed segment as an opportunity to 'test the waters' and discourage her from going on the record about his sexual misconduct," Katz reportedly wrote in the letter, according to the Times.

The segment eventually aired on CNN.

RELATED: HarperCollins Says It Won't Publish Forthcoming Chris Cuomo Book

A source familiar with what transpired, however, offered an opposing view to PEOPLE: This source said in February that the company where the woman was working had been the subject of sustained news coverage and it would have made sense for a journalist to reach out.

The source also insisted that the letter and the woman's claims were not investigated prior to Chris being fired.

In this source's telling, Zucker had initially indicated to Chris that he could potentially return from his suspension, and CNN anchor Brian Stelter said as much on the air.

But days after the letter was sent to the network, Chris was fired.

In its most recent court filing, Chris' legal team claims CNN "did not even attempt to investigate the veracity of the anonymous allegations against Cuomo before deciding to terminate his employment."

The filing further claims that the network "failed to provide any explanation for the abrupt decision to terminate Cuomo in its formal termination letter, which was two sentences long. However, CNN publicly stated that 'he was terminated for violating [CNN's] standards and practices, as well as his lack of candor.' "