In a new court filing, former Weinstein Company COO David Glasser has been accused of making unauthorized payments to himself without the board of directors’ approval, further damaging the company’s financial stability.
According to court documents obtained by TheWrap, the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors for the former Weinstein Company, also said that Glasser tried to persuade other TWC employees to other companies associated with him. Glasser was ousted from the company for cause back in February in the wake of the Weinstein scandal.
The committee, a group representing the individuals and companies owed money by TWC and which includes several women who have accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment, filed a motion asking new owner Lantern Capital to produce documents pertaining to TWC’s bankruptcy filing last year.
“The Committee understands that Mr. Glasser allegedly authorized payments from the Company to himself and others without Board approval, and sought to deprive the Company of rights in development projects to gain favor with prospective employers,” the motion reads.
“The Company also understands that Mr. Glasser may have encouraged certain of the Company’s employees to terminate their employment and solicited such employees to instead work for entities associated with Mr. Glasser. Moreover, after he was fired, Mr. Glasser allegedly damaged the Debtors’ efforts to close the sale to Lantern Entertainment LLC by falsely asserting ownership interests in the Debtors’ assets and interfering in Lantern’s negotiations with key business partners, such as Viacom International, Inc.”
The committee is asking the Delaware Bankruptcy Court for permission to begin an investigation into Glasser’s actions during his final months at TWC. If granted, it would be the second investigation against Glasser. Lantern Capital recently bought TWC’s assets for $289 million after the sale was reduced from the original price of $310 million.
The committee is also seeking documents related to communication between Glasser and executives from several Hollywood talent agencies and networks over TWC projects that were listed in the sale as assets. Among them are the rights to the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical “In the Heights,” which has since been picked up by Warner Bros. for a movie to be released in 2020, and the Kevin Costner TV series “Yellowstone.”
In a statement provided to TheWrap by his attorney, Glasser denied that he has sought to enrich himself or acted without approval of TWC. “The massively overbearing scope of the Committee’s examination of Glasser evidences a runaway train with Lantern Entertainment LLC (Lantern) at the controls. Professionals have racked up more than $7.5 million in professional fees through May,” the statement reads.
“As that burn rate continues past the $10 million mark, the Committee strategy is to assert wild and baseless accusations against anyone connected to the company to develop leverage to benefit Lantern,” it said.
The statement goes on to say that any payments Glasser has received “were duly authorized under applicable corporate rules and it took multiple staff persons to authorize and distribute payments.”
“Mr. Glasser will continue to put his energies into benefitting those damaged by the TWC debacle. However, it is now clear that the threat comes from bankruptcy professionals that exercise no reasonable degree of discretion in their actions,” the statement concludes. “Mr. Glasser will necessarily need seek to protect himself and others from the Committee’s wrongful course of action.”
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report