Harvey Weinstein Pursued For Embezzling Studio Funds To Cover Up Assaults

Harvey Weinstein in 2004. Image by Getty

By Ari Feldman December 18, 2017

The Manhattan District Attorney is investigating disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein for possibly embezzling funding for movie shoots to use as hush money to cover up sexual assaults, the New York Post reported.

For decades, Weinstein, with the help of his brother Bob Weinstein, paid money to women he had assaulted, harassed or bullied as part of non-disclosure agreements to keep the incidents from becoming public. Over a dozen such settlements have been reported in the media. Payments have been as high as $1 million.

A source told the Post that the investigation into where the money came from is “wide-ranging and aggressive,” and has already resulted in more than two-dozen subpoenas in the search for a paper trail. Several Weinstein associates have also given voluntary interviews in the DA’s office this week.

According to the Post’s source, the money could have come from The Weinstein Company, which fired Weinstein in October, or from Miramax.

Weinstein has denied “any allegations of non-consensual sex.” A defense lawyer for Weinstein said: “Any financial settlements by Mr. Weinstein were fully vetted and approved by legal counsel for Mr. Weinstein and The Weinstein Company.”

Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO