Weinstein ‘used agents to spy on accusers’

Harvey Weinstein hired a team of ex-Mossad agents to dig up dirt on actresses who accused him of sexual assault.

According to a new expose Harvey Weinstein used ex-Mossad agents to dig up dirt on actresses who accused him of sexual assault and to spy on reporters investigating their claims in an effort to silence them. Picture: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP.

Harvey Weinstein hired a team of ex-Mossad agents to dig up dirt on actresses who accused him of sexual assault and to spy on reporters investigating their claims in an effort to silence them, a new expose claimed.

Elaborate attempts to suppress mounting allegations against him were detailed in a New Yorker article by Ronan Farrow, the journalist son of Mia Farrow, who first reported the most serious accusations against Mr Weinstein, including rape.

The spies were tasked with stopping publication of the allegations, according to a contract between a lawyer representing Mr Weinstein and a corporate intelligence company called Black Cube, run by former officers from Israel’s secret service.

Black Cube said it would “provide intelligence which will help the client’s efforts to stop the publication of a new negative article in a leading New York newspaper”. It also promised to obtain the “content of a book” - an apparent reference to a memoir by the actress Rose McGowan, who has since claimed Mr Weinstein raped her and paid a $100,000 legal settlement to stop her from speaking of the incident.

It promised to deploy “a dedicated team of expert intelligence officers” and a “full time agent by the name of “Anna”. This agent was said to have contacted Ms McGowan posing as Diana Filip, from a wealth management company called Reuben Capital Partners in London, saying she was launching an initiative to fight gender discrimination in the workplace. Ms McGowan told The New Yorker that “Ms Filip” had offered her a $60,000 speaking fee.

Ms McGowan said she told the woman, who seemed “very kind”, that she was speaking to Mr Farrow. Mr Farrow said he was then contacted by “Ms Filip”. Ben Wallace, a journalist who was investigating Mr Weinstein for New York magazine, said he met the same woman after she claimed to have an allegation about the mogul.

Mr Farrow identified the woman as a former officer in the Israeli Defence Forces who was working for Black Cube. When he sent pictures of the intelligence agent to Ms McGowan and to Mr Wallace, both recognised her as the woman who had met them.

According to a sparse website, Reuben Capital Partners is based at a serviced office in Soho, central London. The website address was set up in March. There is no record of the company on the register of the Financial Conduct Authority.

US film producer Harvey Weinstein. Picture: AFP PHOTO / ROBYN BECK.

In other cases, The New Yorker alleged, journalists directed by Mr Weinstein or his private investigators interviewed women and reported back details. Dylan Howard, chief content officer at the company that publishes National Enquirer, deployed one of his reporters to call the ex-wife of a man who then dated Ms McGowan, it reported. It said Mr Howard then emailed Mr Weinstein saying the woman had “laid into Rose [McGowan] pretty hard” and it was all “RECORDED”. Mr Weinstein was said to have replied saying: “This is the killer. Especially if my fingerprints r not on this.”

Mr Weinstein also hired Kroll, the world’s largest corporate intelligence agency, late last year, according to The New Yorker. Sallie Hofmeister, Mr Weinstein’s spokeswoman, said in a statement: “It is a fiction to suggest any individuals were targeted or suppressed at any time.”

David Boies, a prominent attorney who represented Mr Weinstein and executed the contract with Black Cube, said in a statement: “I was told at the time that the purposes of hiring the private investigators were to ascertain exactly what the actress was accusing Mr Weinstein of having done, and when, and to try to find facts that would prove the charge to be false and thereby stop the story.” He said he no longer represented Mr Weinstein. “I would never knowingly participate in an effort to intimidate or silence women or anyone else,” he said.

Police in London, New York and Los Angeles have all opened investigations into allegations of sexual assault against Mr Weinstein. Manhattan’s district attorney is preparing a criminal case against the mogul, which could be presented to a grand jury as early as next week, US media reported.

--------------

The British actor Ed Westwick, best known for starring in the US hit TV show Gossip Girl, has been accused by an American actress, Kristina Cohen, of raping her at his home three years ago. Mr Westwick, 30, said on Twitter: “I do not know this woman. I have never forced myself in any manner, on any woman. I certainly have never committed rape.”

With Will Pavia and David Brown

The Times