FROM BAD TO WORSE

Report: Weinstein Company May Have Known About Payoffs Since 2015

Lawyer involved says board was informed of 3-4 confidential settlements.

The Weinstein Company was reportedly made aware of several confidential settlements Harvey Weinstein made with women accusing him of sexual misconduct as early as 2015. After firing the movie producer this week amid an avalanche of allegations, the board of directors claimed to have been completely in the dark on the allegations, which go back decades. But David Boies, a lawyer who represented Weinstein for his contract negotiations in 2015, was cited by The New York Times on Wednesday as saying the board was made aware of three or four confidential settlements with women at that time. Lance Maerov, a board member who handled Weinstein’s contract negotiations, told the Times he was aware of settlements but assumed they pertained to consensual affairs. Maerov did not specify which settlements he knew about, but said he implemented a new code of conduct at the company warning against sexual harassment, and a new clause was added to contracts imposing costly fines for any settlements over misconduct. “I don’t know what else I could have done,” Maerov was cited as saying.