After a deal to sell their assets to a female-led investment group fell through, the Weinstein Company has filed for bankruptcy. As part of those proceedings, they have also released any of Harvey Weinstein’s alleged victims from their non-disclosure agreements.
“Today, the Company also takes an important step toward justice for any victims who have been silenced by Harvey Weinstein,” the company said in a statement. “Since October, it has been reported that Harvey Weinstein used non-disclosure agreements as a secret weapon to silence his accusers.”
“Effective immediately, those ‘agreements’ end. The Company expressly releases any confidentiality provision to the extent it has prevented individuals who suffered or witnessed any form of sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein from telling their stories. No one should be afraid to speak out or coerced to stay quiet. The Company thanks the courageous individuals who have already come forward. Your voices have inspired a movement for change across the country and around the world.”
At the beginning of March, an investor group headed by Maria Contreras-Sweet and Ron Burkle reached a deal to purchase the Weinstein Company assets and use them to form a new, female-led movie studio. However, those deals have a 60-day “confirmatory diligence” phase, during which buyers analyze the company’s financials to determine whether they match with the assertions made by management during the sale. Within days of the initial agreement, Contreras-Sweet pulled out the Weinstein deal after, according to Fortune, “an examination raised questions about the viability of the film and TV studio.” According to Bloomberg‘s sources, those questions arose because the Weinstein Company’s “liabilities were higher than the $225 million previously thought.”
Our own Vivian Kane has previously written about how the very existence of non-disclosure agreements in sexual abuse cases is despicable. “There are always plenty of people ready and eager to blame women for signing NDAs that vow to stay silent about the abuse they’ve suffered,” she wrote. “Why is there not even a small fraction of that outrage aimed at the very idea of NDAs that cover sexual abuse? Rather than blaming women for staying silent, why not blame the systems that make sure they stay that way?”
In releasing Harvey Weinstein’s alleged victims from the silencing force of NDAs, the Weinstein Company has finally taken one small step toward addressing the damage done on behalf of its co-founder.
(via NPR; image: The Weinstein Company)
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