Weinstein Co. knew about settlements in 2015, lawyer says
With Harvey Weinstein fired amid escalating allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct, the business he helped create is consumed not just with what he is accused of doing, but with what other company leaders knew and how they responded.
On Tuesday, his brother and cofounder, Bob Weinstein, and the company’s president, David Glasser, told concerned employees in a video conference call that they were shocked by the allegations and unaware of payments made to women who complained of unwanted touching, sexual harassment and other over-the-line behavior, according to several employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Soon after, Bob Weinstein and three other members of the rapidly dwindling board issued a statement saying that new allegations of extreme sexual misconduct and sexual assault had come as “an utter surprise” and that any “suggestion that the Board had knowledge of this conduct is false.”
But interviews and internal company records show that the company has been grappling with Harvey Weinstein’s behavior for at least two years.
David Boies, a lawyer who represented Harvey Weinstein when his contract was up for renewal in 2015, said in an interview that the board and the company were made aware at the time of three or four confidential settlements with women.
And in the waning hours of last week, as he struggled to retain control of the business in the wake of allegations first reported by The New York Times, Harvey Weinstein fired off an email to his brother and other board members asserting that they knew about the payoffs, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the confidential communication.
Lance Maerov, the board member who handled the contract negotiations, acknowledged in an interview that he had been told of settlements, but said that he had assumed they were used to cover up consensual affairs. Maerov said that his chief concern had been whether Harvey Weinstein’s behavior posed a legal liability for the business, and that after receiving assurances that no company money was used and that no complaints against Weinstein were pending, he had approved the contract.
Glasser declined to comment, as did Bob Weinstein. Board members Tarak Ben Ammar and Richard Koenigsberg did not respond to messages.
The contract came up for renewal just as Ambra Battilana, an Italian model, reported to the police that Harvey Weinstein had groped her during a work meeting at his Manhattan office. (Working with the police, she captured Weinstein speaking about the encounter in audio that was published along with an article in The New Yorker on Tuesday.)
The District Attorney’s Office declined to press charges, and Harvey Weinstein insisted that it was a setup, but some board members and top executives worried that Harvey Weinstein had engaged in a pattern of behavior that could jeopardize the company.
After the episode, Maerov said, Harvey Weinstein refused to let the board review his personnel file directly. Instead, it was examined by an outside lawyer, H. Rodgin Cohen, who assured the board in a September 2015 letter that it was legally safe to retain Weinstein because there were no unresolved complaints or threats of litigation against him, according to two people who saw the letter and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Boies said that at the time of the contract negotiations, he was aware of three or four settlements with women. He would not specify which ones, and would not say who within the company or the board was told of them or how the information was communicated.
His law firm, Boies, Schiller & Flexner, has represented The Weinstein Co. and its predecessor, Miramax, in a variety of legal matters. He has also worked directly for Harvey Weinstein, as was the case during the contract negotiations. Boies said there was one settlement to which he “gave advice at or about the time it was being entered into” but declined to say which one.