Disgraced studio head Harvey Weinstein has already been the subject of multiple criminal investigations stemming from his alleged pattern of sexual abuse and assault of women before and after founding the Weinstein Company. Now, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office has filed a lawsuit against TWC itself following a four-month investigation, claiming the company failed to protect employees from Harvey Weinstein’s “unrelenting sexual harassment, intimidation, and discrimination.†Harvey and Bob Weinstein were also personally named in the suit. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the suit claims that, by knowing about his misconduct and refusing to act, the Weinstein Company violated “numerous New York civil rights, human rights, and business laws.â€
The details of the suit assert that Weinstein created a “a years-long gender-based hostile work environment, a pattern of quid pro quo sexual harassment, and routine misuse of corporate resources for unlawful ends.†The filings also allege Weinstein used female employees, some of whom were known as his “wing women,†to help facilitate, organize, and meticulously plan his calendar of sexual activity. Drivers for the former producer were allegedly “required to keep condoms and erectile dysfunction injections in the cars that he used at all times.†The suit claims TWC executives knew about Harvey Weinstein’s workplace behavior from at least “in or about 2005 through at least in or about October 2017.â€
The suit was filed Sunday, reportedly ahead of the sale of the company to an investor group headed by businesswoman Maria Contreras-Sweet. Attorney General Schneiderman said in a statement, “Any sale of the Weinstein Company must ensure that victims will be compensated, employees will be protected going forward, and that neither perpetrators nor enablers will be unjustly enriched. Every New Yorker has a right to a workplace free of sexual harassment, intimidation, and fear.†In addition to monetary penalties, the attorney general’s office asks that anyone who signed an NDA with regards to Weinstein’s misconduct be freed from the contract. You can read the full legal filing over at THR here.