Disgraced film mogul hit with new allegations
NEW YORK — New York’s attorney general on Sunday filed a lawsuit against disgraced Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein and the Weinstein Co following an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.
“As alleged in our complaint, The Weinstein Company repeatedly broke New York law by failing to protect its employees from pervasive sexual harassment, intimidation, and discrimination,” state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in court papers.
Schneiderman launched a civil rights probe into the New York City-based company in October after The New York Times and The New Yorker exposed allegations of sexual assault and harassment spanning decades.
Scores of women, including well-known actresses, have come forward with stories of forced sexual encounters. Weinstein was fired by the film company he founded with his brother Robert and expelled from Hollywood’s movie academy.
“To work for Harvey Weinstein was to work under a persistent barrage of genderbased obscenities, vulgar name-calling, sexualized interactions, threats of violence, and a workplace general hostile to women,” according to court papers.
Schneiderman’s investigation found that employees were subjected to various verbal threats from Weinstein such as “I will kill you, I will kill your family” and “you don’t know what I can do”.
In one case, the probe found that “in a fit of rage against one female employee, he yelled that she should leave the company and make babies since that was all she was good for”.
Female executives were forced to facilitate Weinstein’s sexual conquests with promises of employment opportunities to women who met his favor, according to the lawsuit, which also accused the company of being “responsible for the unlawful conduct” by failing to stop the abuse.
The company and co-owner Robert “are liable because they were aware of and acquiesced in repeated and persistent unlawful conduct by failing to investigate or stop it”, court papers said.
State prosecutors said the suit, the result of an ongoing investigation, was filed out of fear that an imminent sale of The Weinstein Company, now on the verge of bankruptcy, could leave victims without adequate redress. The lawsuit now threatens to delay the sale.
“Any sale of The Weinstein Company must ensure that victims will be compensated, employees will be protected going forward, and that neither perpetrators nor enables will be unjustly enriched,” court papers said.
Cold water
Weinstein’s lawyer poured cold water on the lawsuit and presented his 65-year-old client as a supporter of women’s career advancement.
In a statement on Sunday night, Weinstein’s attorney, Ben Brafman, said that while Weinstein “was not without fault, there certainly was no criminality”.
But state prosecutors accuse the company’s board and executives of repeatedly failing to take adequate steps to protect staff or curb Weinstein’s behavior, despite numerous complaints to the human resources department.
The twice-married father of five is being investigated by British and US police, but has not yet been charged with any crime. He denies having nonconsensual sex and is reportedly in treatment for sex addiction.