Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein has reached a tentative $44 million settlement with numerous women accusing him of sexual assault and harassment, according to The Wall Street Journal.
“For the first time, as of yesterday … we now have an economic agreement in principle that is supported by the plaintiffs, the [New York attorney general’s] office, the defendants and all of the insurers,” Adam Harris, an attorney for Weinstein’s brother and studio co-founder Bob Weinstein, told Judge Mary Walrath of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., according to the Journal.
{mosads}The agreement has not yet been finalized but includes about $30 million for Harvey Weinstein’s accusers, former employees of the Weinstein Company and studio creditors, according to the newspaper, citing people familiar with the matter. About $14 million would go to legal fees for Weinstein’s associates, including former board members named as co-defendants in lawsuits, according to the Journal.
The agreement follows several mediation sessions that aimed to reach a global settlement for all pending civil suits against Weinstein and his former company and associates. The complaints, part of a proposed class-action suit, involve women from the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom and allege both sex crimes by Weinstein going back more than 25 years and allegations that Weinstein’s associates on the company’s board helped facilitate his alleged crimes, which they have denied.
The proposed deal would also resolve a civil rights lawsuit from the New York attorney general’s office filed last year accusing executives and board members at the Weinstein Company of failing to protect employees from a hostile work environment.
Several federal judges have allowed some claims against Weinstein to proceed but dismissed other claims against his associates in recent months, according to the Journal.
The proposal would not affect Weinstein’s ongoing criminal charges in Manhattan, which include rape and other sex crimes with a trial date of September.