Weinstein Company Sale Delayed by NY Attorney General Lawsuit
February 12, 2018 by admin
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Under the deal, the two people said, Mr. Weinstein’s younger brother, Bob Weinstein, who has run the studio’s commercially oriented Dimension Films label, would leave the studio. Bob Weinstein had frantically tried to keep control of the company following his brother’s firing in October.
The brothers, who jointly own about 42 percent of the Weinstein Company, would receive no cash from the proposed sale, according to the two people briefed on the deal. Other equity holders, including the advertising giant WPP Group, may also be wiped out.
But the final-stage talks came to a screeching halt on Sunday afternoon, according to the two people briefed on the process, as the investor group received word that Mr. Schneiderman was about to file a lawsuit based on an ongoing four-month investigation into the Weinstein Company’s internal dealings.
The lawsuit, which refers to Harvey Weinstein by his initials, says that the company’s management and board of directors “were repeatedly presented with credible evidence of HW’s sexual harassment” of company employees and interns “and his use of corporate employees and resources to facilitate sexual activity with third parties.”
In one instance, a woman who complained to human resources later discovered that it was forwarded by email to Mr. Weinstein, the legal papers say. The lawsuit added that, by guaranteeing the silence of victims and other employees through nondisclosure agreements, the company enabled Mr. Weinstein’s “unlawful conduct to continue far beyond the date when, through reasonable diligence, it should have been stopped.”
The lawsuit detailed, in the words of one employee, a “toxic environment for women. The suit says Mr. Weinstein had used female employees to aid him in his pursuit of sexual targets. It says that two employees described having to procure injectable erectile dysfunction medication for Mr. Weinstein and says that one of them received a bonus for obtaining the medication “and was at times directed by HW to administer the injections.”
The court filing mentions the possible sale of the company, saying that it could leave victims “without adequate redress” and could provide financial benefits to Mr. Weinstein or his enablers. Eric Soufer, director of communications and senior counsel to Mr. Schneiderman, said the attorney general’s office considered asking a judge for a temporary restraining order that could block the sale but opted not to and filed the civil rights lawsuit instead. He added that the office reviewed the proposed terms of the sale and that they did not include a victims compensation fund.
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Carlo Allegri/Reuters
The lawsuit could result in fines against the company and the Weinstein brothers, and it calls for the defendants to pay restitution and damages to the victims.
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The Weinstein Company has been in exclusive sale negotiations since Jan. 23 with an investor group led by Ms. Contreras-Sweet . Although she has no Hollywood experience, Ms. Contreras-Sweet pulled ahead of bidders like Lions Gate Entertainment by promising to keep the studio intact and retaining its employees, including senior managers like David Glasser, the Weinsteins’ longtime top lieutenant. (In the past, the Weinsteins called him their “third brother.”)
Mr. Schneiderman’s lawsuit does not name Mr. Glasser, who is the chief operating officer, but it refers to him by his title and says that the sale of the company could result in employees reporting to some of the same managers “who failed to investigate” Mr. Weinstein’s conduct or protect female employees from him.
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A spokesman for Ms. Contreras-Sweet declined to comment. The Weinstein Company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Benjamin Brafman, a lawyer for Mr. Weinstein, said in a statement, “While Mr. Weinstein’s behavior was not without fault, there certainly was no criminality, and at the end of the inquiry it will be clear that Harvey Weinstein promoted more women to key executive positions than any other industry leader.” Mr. Weinstein has denied all allegations of “non-consensual sex.”
Amy Spitalnick, the press secretary for Mr. Schneiderman, said that his office had recently reached out to representatives for Ms. Contreras-Sweet to emphasize the importance of adequately compensating victims, protecting employees and not rewarding those who enabled or perpetuated Mr. Weinstein’s misconduct. “We were surprised to learn they were not serious about discussing any of those issues or even sharing the most basic information about how they planned to address them,” Ms. Spitalnick said.
Ms. Contreras-Sweet was stunned by Mr. Schneiderman’s public call for assurance that any sale ensure that victims are compensated, according to one person briefed on the matter, in part because that was already part of her proposal. The person added that Ms. Contreras-Sweet had not spoken to Mr. Schneiderman’s office before Sunday because Weinstein Company lawyers had blocked conversations by citing nondisclosure agreements signed as part of the sale process.
One of the investors backing Ms. Contreras-Sweet is the billionaire Ron Burkle, a longtime associate of the Weinsteins whose involvement in the sales process has raised some eyebrows in Hollywood. In 2010, he teamed with the Weinsteins in a failed effort to buy back Miramax, the independent studio they founded in 1979. (They sold it to Disney in 1993; the brothers left to found the Weinstein Company in 2005. Disney sold Miramax to an investor group in 2010.)
Mr. Burkle also helped Harvey Weinstein finance movies, including “Our Idiot Brother,” a 2011 comedy starring Paul Rudd.
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Rose McGowan, the actress-turned-activist, told The Hollywood Reporter in January that she found Mr. Burkle’s involvement in the bid “profoundly disturbing.” (He would become a minority owner.) Ms. McGowan reached a settlement with Harvey Weinstein after a 1997 festival encounter that she has since described, on Twitter, as rape.
Ms. Contreras-Sweet outlined her plans for the company in a letter to its board in November, when she first made her offer.
“I will be Chairwoman of a majority-female board of directors,” she wrote in the letter. “Women will be significant investors in the new company and control its voting stock.” The studio is expected to be renamed if the deal goes through.
Other bidders were only interested in pieces of the Weinstein Company, namely its 277-film library, which includes titles like “The Imitation Game” and “Django Unchained.” The Weinstein Company also has a television division that makes “Project Runway” and is working on a pair of dramas for the Paramount Network, which is owned by Viacom.
To stay afloat while it has pursued a sale — the studio employs about 150 people — the Weinstein Company at first sought loans from Fortress Investment Group, a private equity firm, and Colony Capital, the private equity firm run by Thomas J. Barrack Jr. Those efforts failed, making a sale all the more important to avoid bankruptcy.
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Kim Jong Un’s Sister Ends Her Olympics Visit After Delivering Hopes For a Summit
February 12, 2018 by admin
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(GANGNEUNG, South Korea) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s sister headed home Sunday night after a whirlwind three days in South Korea, where she sat among world dignitaries at the Olympics and tossed a diplomatic offer to the South aimed at ending seven decades of hostility.
Kim Yo Jong and the rest of the North Korean delegation departed for Pyongyang on her brother’s private jet, a day after they delivered his hopes for a summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in during a lunch at Seoul’s presidential palace. It was a sharp, but possibly fleeting, contrast with many months of rising tensions connected to the North’s continued development of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles.
They capped their final day in South Korea by joining Moon at a Seoul concert given by a visiting North Korean art troupe led by the head of the immensely popular Moranbong band, whose young female members are hand-picked by Kim Jong Un.
Accepting North Korea’s demand to transport more than 100 members of the art troupe by sea, South Korea treated the Mangyongbong-92 ferry as an exemption to the maritime sanctions it imposed on the North, a controversial move amid concerns that the North is trying to use the Olympics to poke holes in international sanctions.
South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon hosted the North Koreans for lunch Sunday before Moon’s chief of staff, Im Jong-seok, hosted them for dinner ahead of the concert.
Kim Yo Jong, 30, is an increasingly prominent figure in her brother’s government and the first member of the North’s ruling family to visit the South since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. The North Korean delegation also included the country’s 90-year-old head of state, Kim Yong Nam.
In dispatching the highest level of government officials the North has ever sent to the South, Kim Jong Un revealed a sense of urgency to break out of deep diplomatic isolation in the face of toughening sanctions over his nuclear program, analysts say.
“Honestly, I didn’t know I would come here so suddenly. I thought things would be strange and very different, but I found a lot of things being similar,” Kim said while proposing a toast at Sunday’s dinner, according to Moon’s office. “Here’s to hoping that we could see the pleasant people (of the South) again in Pyeongchang and bring closer the future where we are one again.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Sunday rejected any suggestion that even a temporary warming of relations between the North and South could drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington.
It’s too early to say, Mattis said, “if using the Olympics in a way to reduce tension – if that’s going to have any traction once the Olympics are over. We can’t say right now.”
South Korea accommodated both the North Korean government officials and members of the art troupe at the Walkerhill hotel in Seoul. The riverside facility is named after late U.S. Army commander Walton Walker, who’s considered a war hero in the South for his battles against the North during the Korean War. It was built in the 1960s under the government of late anti-communist dictator Park Chung-hee as a luxury facility for U.S. troops stationed in South Korea.
The North Koreans went through a busy schedule in South Korea as the world watched their every move. They were whisked back and forth between Seoul and the Olympic towns of Pyeongchang and Gangneung.
They shared the VIP box with world leaders at the opening ceremony and joined Moon in cheering for the first-ever inter-Korean Olympic team as it debuted in the women’s ice hockey tournament. Saturday’s game ended in a crushing 8-0 loss to Switzerland.
The most important part of the visit, however, came during one of the quieter moments.
Invited by Moon for lunch at Seoul’s presidential palace, Kim Yo Jong verbally delivered her brother’s hope for a summit with Moon in Pyongyang, a meeting that she said would help significantly improve ties after an extended period of animosity.
“We hope that President (Moon) could leave a legacy that would last over generations by leading the way in opening a new era of unification,” she said, according to Moon’s office.
Though Moon has used the Olympics to resurrect meaningful communication with North Korea after a diplomatic stalemate over its nuclear program, he didn’t immediately jump on the North Korean offer for a summit.
He said the Koreas should create an environment so that a summit could take place. He also called for the need of a quick resumption of dialogue between North Korea and the United States.
After arriving in Seoul on Friday, the North Koreans attended a chilly opening ceremony at Pyeongchang’s Olympic Stadium, taking their place among world dignitaries, including U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who seemed to go out of their way to not acknowledge the North Koreans despite sitting just few feet (meters) away.
Analysts say Kim Jong Un’s decision to send his sister to the South reflected an eagerness to break out of diplomatic isolation by improving ties with the South, which the country could eventually use as a bridge to approach the United States. The U.S.-led international community has been tightening the screws on North Korea with sanctions designed to punish its economy and rein in its efforts to expand its nuclear weapons and missile program, which now includes developmental long-range missiles targeting the U.S. mainland.
By also sending a youthful, photogenic individual who would surely draw international attention at the Olympics, Kim might have also been trying to construct a fresher image of the country, particularly in face of U.S. efforts to use the Olympics as an occasion to highlight the North’s brutal human rights record.
Always flanked by thick groups of bodyguards, Kim Yo Jong commanded attention wherever she went, walking among throngs of journalists with a quiet poise and occasionally shooting an enigmatic smile at cameras.
The Koreas previously held summits in 2000 and 2007, both hosted in Pyongyang by Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un’s late father. The previous meetings came after rounds of international talks aimed at eliminating the North’s nuclear program, which eventually failed.
Moon has always expressed a desire to reach out to North Korea. Reviving inter-Korean dialogue is critical for the policies of Moon, who insists that Seoul should be in control in international efforts to deal with the North Korean nuclear issue.
“The fate of our nation must be determined by our own selves — we must not allow the repeat of unfortunate past history where our fate was determined with no regard to our opinions,” Moon said in a speech to South Korean lawmakers in November.
But analysts say it may be more difficult for the South to arrange a summit with the North coming off a year in which Pyongyang test-fired dozens of missiles, including three ICBMs, and conducted its most powerful nuclear test to date.
South Korea may also need to persuade traditional allies the United States and Japan, which have raised concerns that the North is attempting to use its outreach as a release valve for international pressure.