Film producer Harvey Weinstein is no longer being prosecuted for the financial fraud associated with the settlements he faced with his victims of rape. The prosecutor in Manhattan in New York has decided to drop this charge, reports Deadline.
According to Weinstein’s lawyer, Ben Brafman, the public prosecutor in Manhattan has decided to close the fraud case. And no longer investigate whether Weinstein used company assets to pay his alleged victims.
“The fact that the Public Prosecution Service has officially closed the investigation does not surprise me,” says Brafman to Deadline. “I spent almost a year explaining that this research is useless. Because Mr. Weinstein always paid his own bills or repaid the company if there are personal costs. If they had listened to me, it would have saved the public prosecutor a lot of time and money.” The film producer would have paid more than a dozen women over the past 20 years not to file a complaint. One of them, the Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, would have even received 1 million dollars.
Weinstein will still have to stand trial for sexual abuse, rape. And other charges for the assault of two women, including production assistant Mimi Haleyi.
