Harvey Weinstein's legal battle, which went to trial last summer, has reportedly found a tentative solution. According to the New York Times, the Hollywood producer, who has been accused by over 80 women of sexual misconduct, and his former studio’s board members have reached $44 million deal to resolve the lawsuits. Settlement talks have not concluded, according to the outlet, but about $30 million would be given to a pool of plaintiffs made up of alleged victims, creditors of his former studio, and some former employees. The rest would go towards legal fees.
Currently, the disgraced movie mogul faces criminal charges in New York for alleged sexual violence against two women, but he also faces a number of civil charges for sexual harassment. Weinstein has consistently denied all accusations of nonconsensual sex, and pled not guilty to the New York criminal charges.
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A previous proposed deal between an investor group interested in assets of the Weinstein Company and Eric T. Schneiderman, who was then New York’s attorney general before facing sexual assault accusations of his own, included a $90 million victims’ fund, but it fell apart after the investor group received “disappointing information.” The $44 million mentioned in the current proposed deal would be covered by insurance policies.
The accusations against Harvey Weinstein kicked off the 2017 wave of the #MeToo movement, which inspired women to speak up about the alleged sexual violence they faced at the hands of powerful men, and led to the founding of the celebrity-backed Time's Up, a legal fund for women victims of sexual misconduct and discrimination in the workplace. The solution reached in Weinstein's case would be his alleged victims' first taste of justice after decades of silence.