On Wednesday, the Weinstein Company board issued a statement indicating that they had no knowledge that movie mogul Harvey Weinstein sexually harassed women in private or that he settled eight times out of court to appease his accusers. However, a new report Thursday morning shows that the Weinstein Company board may have known about the settlements as early as 2015.
In an interview with The New York Times, the company’s longtime attorney David Boies claims that the board knew of this settlements in 2015, a claim Boies was able to corroborate with internal company documents. Boies said that the board knew of as many as three or four of the eight settlements.
When asked by the Times, board member Lance Maerov, who handled contract negotiations, said that the board assumed the payouts were for consensual affairs, not sexual harassment. Other members of the board, including Harvey’s brother Bob Weinstein, have declined comment.
Shortly after firing Harvey Weinstein this past Sunday, the board took the same line as every other celebrity in Hollywood: they were completely ignorant of Weinstein’s abhorrent behavior.
The Weinstein Company’s Board of Representatives – Bob Weinstein, Lance Maerov, Richard Koenigsberg and Tarak Ben Ammar – are shocked and dismayed by the recently emerged allegations of extreme sexual misconduct and sexual assault by Harvey Weinstein. These alleged actions are antithetical to human decency. These allegations come as an utter surprise to the Board. Any suggestion that the Board had knowledge of this conduct is false.
We are committed to assisting with our full energies in all criminal or other investigations of these alleged acts, while pursuing justice for the victims and a full and independent investigation of our own.
Harvey’s brother Bob, who also has a reputation for being an abusive bully albeit without the sexual component, called his brother a “very sick man” in regard to the allegations.
“My brother Harvey is obviously a very sick man,” Bob Weinstein told TMZ in a statement. “I’ve urged him to seek immediate professional help because he is in dire need of it. His remorse and apologies to the victims of his abuse are hollow. He said he would go away for help and has yet to do so.”
Bob Weinstein continued to TMZ, “He has proven himself to be a world-class liar and now, rather than seeking help, he is looking to blame others. His assertion is categorically untrue from A to Z. I pray he gets the help that he needs and I believe that it is him behind all of these stories to distract from his own failure to get help.”