The last investigation I was involved with was back in 2002. It involved male to male hostile work environment and the company ended up going through the EEOC and finally settled for pay-off. Even the EEOC officer admitted the guy wasn't going to drop the case, even after testimony showed the allegations to be false. His next step was to take the company to court.
Many companies handle matters like this in this manner. You can doubt what I say all you want, but at the time of these allegations against Cain this was a very common practice. No company at that time was going to let such allegations escalate. You have to ask yourself with the prevalence of sexual harassment at the time, why didn't we see tons of cases in the courts?
No company is going to spend thousands of dollars and months or years in courts defending a sexual harassment claim. It is not economically responsible.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Claims of sexual harassment like those swirling around Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain are often settled quietly by U.S. companies and organizations, regardless of whether the accusations are true, employment lawyers said. http://news.yahoo.com/settlements-common-harassment-cases-cains-221654717.html