Disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein has reached a tentative $25 million settlement with his accusers, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
Weinstein has been accused by over 30 actresses and former employees of sexual offenses including rape. The revelations of the producer’s alleged acts was one of the catalysts that started the #MeToo protests against sexual assault.
Weinstein is scheduled to go to trial in January on charges of sexual assault against two women. The tentative deal pertains to separate civil suits against the mogul by other accusers.
The deal with his accusers would not require Weinstein to admit wrongdoing or pay his accusers out of his own pocket. Instead, the settlement would be paid by insurance companies for the mogul’s former studio, the Weinstein Company, as part of a larger bankruptcy deal for the company.
Weinstein representatives declined to comment, as did lawyers for different parties in the suit.
“I don’t love it, but I don’t know how to go after him,” said actress Katherine Kendall regarding the deal. “I don’t know what I can really do.” Kendall said she agreed to the deal because she didn’t want to prevent other accusers from receiving compensation.
Genie Harrison, a sexual harassment lawyer representing a different accuser, said waiting for better terms could harm the chances of coming to a deal with Weinstein at all.
“I don’t think there’s a markedly better deal to be made,” Ms. Harrison told the Times. “We have really, truly done the best we can under the circumstances, and it’s important for other victims to know this, come forward and be able to get the best level of compensation we were able to get.
The accusations against Weinstein were exposed by journalist Ronan Farrow in the New Yorker in 2017. Farrow has alleged that his former employer NBC sat on the Weinstein story because the producer had threatened to reveal sexual assault allegations against former Today Show host Matt Lauer. NBC heads denied Farrow’s allegations.
Farrow has also said Weinstein had Hillary Clinton’s publicist Nick Merrill contact the journalist to try to put him off the story. Merrill denies the allegation.