Washington: New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman has filed a lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein and the Weinstein Co., alleging years of sexual harassment and misconduct by the disgraced movie producer.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Sunday with the New York County supreme court, alleges that the Weinsteins created “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 that extended from in or about 2005 through at least in or about October 2017.”
Schneiderman’s lawsuit accuses the 65-year-old of “personally creating a hostile work environment … by demanding that women engage in sexual or demeaning conduct.”
He routinely yelled at female employees “for purported incompetence, cursing in their faces, threatening to end their careers, and describing his intent to harm them,” the suit alleges.
It also claims Weinstein used derogatory and obscene language to intimidate employees.
The suit also names Weinstein’s brother Bob, who co-founded the company.
Weinstein attorney Benjamin Brafman said in a statement that “a fair investigation by Schneiderman will demonstrate that many of the allegations against Harvey Weinstein are without merit.”
“While Mr. Weinstein’s behavior was not without fault, there certainly was no criminality,” the statement read, as reported by CNN.
The New York Times first reported in October on multiple allegations of sexual misconduct by Weinstein after which he was fired by the film company he founded with his brother Robert and expelled from Hollywood’s movie academy. (ANI)