After two years of legal back and forth, longtime producer and alleged sexual abuser Harvey Weinstein has reached a tentative payout of $25 million for his victims. Granted alongside the board of The Weinstein Company, which filed for bankruptcy in March 2018, the deal would not require the producer to admit any wrongdoing on his part or pay any sum to his accusers directly, according to The New York Times.
The settlement has received preliminary approval from all major parties, according to lawyers involved with the case. More than thirty women and former employees of Weinstein that have accused him of offenses ranging from sexual misconduct to rape would receive a portion from the $25 million payout, along with future claimants that may join in upcoming months. The settlement would resolve lawsuits filed from seventeen different women and does not include high profile celebrities that accused him of various wrongdoings, including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Salma Hayek.
Weinstein, the former co-chairman of The Weinstein Company, who produced Oscar-winning films like The King’s Speech, Silver Linings Playbook, and Django Unchained, among others, is still awaiting criminal trial for sexual assault. While the payout may bring some relief to victims, others have expressed their disappointment in its terms. Katherine Kendall, in an interview for NYT, states that she doesn’t “love it, but I don’t know how to go after him… I don’t know what I can really do.”
It is unknown as of yet if Weinstein will receive any civil or criminal charges in addition to this deal.
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