In one case, in the nineteen-nineties, Bob Weinstein, who co-founded the film studio Miramax with his brother, paid two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, roughly six hundred thousand dollars today, to be split between two female employees in England who accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment and assault. Those funds would take TWC’s long-suffering investors out of the equation, and far exceeds the $150 million-$175 million that Colony Capital offered in a bottom-feeding bid that was fed to the press as cataclysmic when the board rejected it. (Through a spokesperson, Weinstein has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex, and of retaliation against women who rebuffed him or complained about his behavior.) I had been considering both a theater major and a psychology major at Smith College. Just listen to the proof.’ ” On April 10, 2015, two weeks after Gutierrez reported Weinstein to the police, the D.A.’s office announced that it wasn’t going to press charges. “Given what happened in 2015, none of the directors objected to the code, nor did anyone support giving Harvey special privileges,” he says. Roberts: I can’t probably say that there’s a direct line between that experience with Harvey Weinstein and my research on the sexual objectification and sexualization of girls and women, but there certainly is a dotted line. He began to think that he was untouchable, and that was his downfall.” (In this story, all references to a person as “Weinstein” are to Harvey Weinstein.) The meeting went really well, and he gave me two scripts to read. “I was forced by the fact that newspapers completely bashed me, by the fact that I was alone, by the fact that I was twenty-two years old,” Gutierrez told me. I couldn’t work in the industry in the U.K. because the stories that were going around about what had happened made it impossible,” she said. The investigators discovered that, as a young contestant in the Miss Italy beauty pageant, in 2010, she had attended a “Bunga Bunga” party hosted by Silvio Berlusconi, who was then the Italian Prime Minister, where he was accused of having sex with prostitutes. “They said that I was a Bunga Bunga girl, that I was having affairs with sugar daddies,” Gutierrez said. “They just said, ‘No way. Then he went back, and I thought he was gonna get dressed, but then he came back, and he came back fully naked. “We didn’t win our Hail Mary pass to get a turnaround specialist on the board, and change the governance, but it was a big deal to get the code of conduct,” says Ben Ammar. “I knew if he could move the press in this way, I couldn’t fight him.” Gutierrez said that she knows that many people will judge her harshly for taking the money. “They went at her like they were Weinstein’s defense attorneys,” one of the law-enforcement sources told me. “Weinstein traded on those friendships, on his social currency,” says Maerov. “I’m disappointed that his friends didn’t stay on the board at that critical time, so we could make a united statement,” says Ben Ammar. In numerous cases, such agreements have allowed abuses to continue unabated, sometimes for decades. “The tragedy is that if we’d removed Harvey two years ago, we’d still have issues, but the talent would have stayed, because Harvey would have been long gone as CEO. Weinstein was fired by the board of Weinstein Co. (TWC) on Oct. 8, just three days after the New York Times published a report detailing extensive allegations of abuse and harassment by the Hollywood legend; on Oct. 17, Weinstein resigned from the company’s board. “Boies and Cohen obstructed our seeing what was in that personnel file, when we had a total right to see it.” Ben Ammar and Maerov insist that Boies and Weinstein denied them sensational information that could have influenced crucial shareholder decisions that in turn could have transformed TWC’s governance. “We pushed to get the facts.” 
 
 According to Ben Ammar and Maerov, Weinstein told the board that the whole incident “was a setup by a shakedown artist.” The proof, he said, was that he wasn’t arrested, and that Gutierrez had signed an affidavit swearing that the alleged groping never occurred. The Weinsteins’ holdings were diluted, but they kept tight control through their effective hold over six of the nine board seats. I said, “This thing happened, and I’m so sorry, and I don’t know if it had anything to do with … ” He was like, “Did you have to mention Ioan’s name?” I remember thinking, “Oh shit, that’s why,” as if to say, “You didn’t have to bring our client into this.” 
 
 Look, I don’t blame him, and I’m not trying to witch-hunt him, but the weird thing is that for many years, all I could think of was, “Why did I say ‘boyfriend’?” Ioan never was called for Miramax, and neither was I. 
 
 Kendall: I don’t want to interrupt, but I know why you said your boyfriend. Of course you said, “My boyfriend.” You were making yourself safe immediately. “That’s just downright wrong.” In the end, the women’s attorneys agreed on the settlement of two hundred and fifty thousand pounds to be evenly split between the two former employees. That exodus leaves just three of the nine pre-scandal directors to rescue a once-fabled filmmaker. In other words, misusing company cash wasn’t sufficient to terminate him. According to several current and former directors, Harvey insisted that the charges in the Times piece weren’t true, and that the scandal would blow over. And his problems didn’t end with the alleged financial misdeeds and the groping scandal. “Cy and I were friends and partners long before Harvey Weinstein came into my life,” Abramowitz told me. He took her to Italy and then the Philippines “to start again.” She told me, “I was completely destroyed.” 
 
 Harvey Weinstein had been using similar tactics with women for more than twenty years. She’s not part of the consortium proposing to take over the company; she is repping several women who’ve accused Harvey Weinstein of wrongdoing and has already filed civil suits. Both her former law firm and Weinstein’s continue to adhere to a stipulation that she never personally possess a full copy. “The only thing I did was exposing something bad that happened to me.” The coverage sometimes included photos from Gutierrez’s modelling career. “Because of the operating agreement, Harvey’s “W” shares gave him the right to keep running the company even if he wasn’t an official employee,” says Maerov. Anyone who knows me knows those things are completely fake.” Gutierrez said that the decision not to press charges shocked her. He lobbied investors to appoint his close friend Ziff instead—a choice that would bolster his position in the contract negotiations, according to the dissidents. And according to Ben Ammar and Maerov, it was Harvey who, in most cases, handpicked the three supposedly non-affiliated directors. A speedy collapse 
 
 Since the 2015 contract vote, the roster of directors witnessing these battles had changed significantly. Bob and Harvey Weinstein initially held 50% of the shares in a class called the “W series.” 
 
 The balance was owned by a large syndicate. “It was clear that this opening was the only opportunity we would ever have of changing the governance of the company and creating protection against Harvey,” says Maerov. The Board now has the file and has not identified anything in it of which the Board was not aware in 2015.” 
 
 In a letter to the Financial Times on Oct. 24, Boies stated that “[The assertion] that Messrs. Maerov and Ben Ammar did not know about Mr. Weinstein’s settlements with women when they approved his 2015 contract…is simply false.” 
 
 Says Ben Ammar, “David Boies quite clearly lost perspective in his dealings with Harvey Weinstein and TWC, and that the consequences of that are obvious.” 
 
 Part Three: The Weinstein Co. A deal falls through, and Weinstein stumbles 
 
 In early 2014, Weinstein steered TWC into a successful new venture: television production. Ultimately, the reason Harvey Weinstein followed the route he did is because he was allowed to, and that’s our fault. Whatever they need to do to silence you.’ ” Perkins said that she felt trapped.
– Ronan Farrow continues his investigation into Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault and harassment settlements with a new piece in the New Yorker, offering the strongest evidence yet that Weinstein's brother and Weinstein Company partner was in the know. Though Bob Weinstein has denied prior knowledge of allegations from more than 75 women, Farrow reports roughly $600,000 paid to two British accusers 20 years ago came from Bob's personal bank account. Bob, who was operating Disney's Miramax with Harvey at the time, confirms the payment but says he only agreed because Harvey said "he was fooling around with two women" who wanted money "and he didn't want his wife to find out." The payment was also hidden from Disney, but Bob says "there was nothing to indicate any kind of sexual harassment." While Bob Weinstein remains as head of the Weinstein Company, a $275 million bid for its assets led by Maria Contreras-Sweet, former head of the US Small Business Administration, would see 51% of the company controlled by women, reports Deadline. Such a change might be necessary, according to the Weinstein Company's remaining board members, financier Tarak Ben Ammar and director Lance Maerov. They tell Fortune Weinstein should've been fired in 2015 for alleged misuse of company funds but was protected by billionaire friends and board members, including James Dolan and Dirk Ziff. That same year, Filipina-Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez says she received a $1 million settlement after Harvey groped her breasts and tried to put his hand up her skirt, per the New Yorker. Three other accusers discuss allegations of their own, with each other, at Slate.