GC Images/Jacopo Raule(NEW YORK) — A new report alleges that disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein hired private investigators to gather information on women who had accused him of sexual misconduct and to secretly reach out to reporters working on stories about the allegations.
According to The New Yorker, Weinstein hired two firms — Kroll and Black Cube — to gather information from the accusers and from reporters working on stories.
The report claims that on Black Cube operative, posing as a private equity investor launching an initiative to combat discrimination against women in the workplace, reached out to one accuser, actress Rose McGowan, offering her money to speak at a conference. The story alleges that the same investigator contacted a reporter for New York magazine saying she had allegations against Weinstein to share.
That reporter, Ben Wallace, told The New Yorker, the woman, using a different name than the one she used with McGowan, asked him “about the status and scope of my inquiry, and about who I might be talking to, without giving me any meaningful help or information.”
The operative also allegedly emailed The New Yorker‘s reporter, Ronan Farrow, and New York Timesreporter Jodi Kantor, under an assumed name when they were working on Weinstein stories.
A spokesperson for Weinstein told The New Yorker, “It is a fiction to suggest that any individuals were targeted or suppressed at any time.”
Black Cube declined to comment on the specifics of the report citing a policy of never commenting to third parties on client work.
Attorney David Boies confirmed to The New Yorker that his firm contracted and paid the investigators whose reports were sent to Weinstein.
In related news, the Television Academy, which among other things gives out the Emmys, voted Monday to expel Weinstein and ban him for life, reports Variety.
Copyright © 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
