New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman followed up his blockbuster lawsuit against the Weinstein Company on Monday by charging that the indie studio’s leadership was “complicit” in Harvey Weinstein’s decades-long accused sexual misconduct.
Schneiderman further alleged that a “victims fund” for Weinstein’s accusers — to which TheWrap reported prospective buyer Maria Contreras-Sweet personally plans to contribute $20 million — does not exist.
“Let me be clear: Weinstein Company leadership was complicit in Harvey Weinstein’s wrongdoing. They knew what was happening. They know how pervasive it was. And yet they did nothing,” Schneiderman wrote Monday following a Sunday lawsuit the state filed against the embattled movie studio.
“By doing nothing, the Weinstein Company repeatedly broke New York law. That is unacceptable. It was then, it is now, and it will be moving forward,” he continued.
Schneiderman’s office threw an 11th-hour wrench into Contreras-Sweet’s planned purchase of TWC, a weeks-long process expected to end on Sunday, filing a suit that charged a series of civil rights violations.
The suit does not block the sale, but the attorney general’s office can file a temporary restraining order blocking it within 30 days of the sale contract being signed. The Contreras-Sweet group had an exclusive negotiating window, which ended on Sunday according to an individual familiar with the process.
The attorney general specifically called out TWC President and Chief Operating Officer David Glasser as one of those complicit in Harvey Weinstein’s behavior, and balked at how the executive might be “rewarded” by the new deal.
It had widely been expected that he would remain with the company as CEO following Contreras-Sweet’s acquisition.
“It is critically important that any deal to buy Weinstein Co ensure victims will be adequately compensated, employees will be protected moving forward, and complicit company executives will not be rewarded. As of yesterday, there was no deal that would have met that standard. Instead, the deal on the table would have rewarded David Glasser and other top execs. It would have kept victims muzzled by insidious non-disclosure agreements. And there was no victims compensation fund. Let me repeat that: There was no victims compensation fund,” Schneiderman said.
Reps for Glasser and TWC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.