Another bungle vs. Harv
Hush-$$ case fizzles
Harvey Weinstein has dodged another bullet.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office won’t be bringing a financial-crimes case against the once-mighty film mogul (inset), The Post has learned.
Prosecutors didn’t find any criminal conduct after a yearlong investigation into whether Weinstein misappropriated money from his companies to silence accusers, law-enforcement sources said.
Authorities had served more than two dozen subpoenas, demanding documents from the Weinstein Company, Miramax and two law firms that represented him and his company, the sources said.
Weinstein still faces predatory assault, rape and other charges related to two alleged victims, production assistant Mimi Haleyi and an unidentified woman.
“The fact that the District Attorney’s Office has officially closed their investigation does not surprise me in the least,” Weinstein defense lawyer Ben Brafman said of the financial-crimes probe.
“I have been explaining to them for almost a year that this inquiry was a mindless voyage, as Mr. Weinstein never defrauded any company or person and always paid his own bills, or after the fact, by agreement, reimbursed the company for any personal expense.”
Over the last two decades, Weinstein has struck settlements with more than a dozen accusers, including Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, who reportedly got a $1 million payout.
In 2015, she told police that Weinstein allegedly groped her in his Tribeca office, but the Man- hattan DA, in a widely criticized decision, declined to prosecute the case.
The financial probe, described by one source as “wide-ranging and aggressive,” failed to turn up evidence to support a fraud or larceny indictment.
The hush-money settlements were carefully vetted by Weinstein’s lawyers to ensure they were legal, a source said.
Assistant DA Kevin Wilson led the investigation that was supervised by Christopher Conroy, chief of the office’s Major Economic Crimes Bureau.
A potential financial-crimes indictment was seen as a backup to the sex-assault case, a source said.
“It was an insurance policy if the sex-assault case collapsed,” according to the source. Wilson is now working with Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, the lead prosecutor on the sex-crimes case, which has faced its own hurdles.
In October, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice James Burke dismissed the felony count that related to actress Lucia Evans due to inconsistencies in her story and allegations that ex-Detective Nicholas DiGaudio coached a witness to withhold information.
Brafman filed a motion this month to dismiss the remaining counts against Weinstein, which Judge Burke has yet to rule on.
Meanwhile, Manhattan federal prosecutors are conducting their own probe into whether Weinstein broke any financial laws.
The feds have crimes that don’t exist under state law, including wire fraud and federal stalking. The status of their investigation wasn’t immediately clear.
The Manhattan DA declined to comment.