Harvey Weinstein paid off multiple accusers over the years to keep allegations at bay

With the NYPD collecting evidence for the possible conviction of Harvey Weinstein, more and more women are speaking out against the producer. According to the latest report by The New Yorker, Weinstein, who is accused of sexual harassment and assault by multiple women (reports peg this number at above 80), allegedly paid off many accusers over the years, to keep the allegations at bay. [caption id=“attachment_4199769” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Harvey Weinstein. Image from AP.[/caption] Filipina-Italian model Ambra Battilana, who herself has faced sexual harassment at the hands of Weinstein, spoke to Ronan Farrow, the journalist who exposed Weinstein. In the interview, she recounted signing a nondisclosure agreement, under which she would never talk about her encounter with the producer during which he allegedly groped her and slid his hand up her skirt. She was paid a million dollars for signing the document, which she had to sign due to financial constraints. According to the report, many such payments were made discreetly by Weinstein, to silence the victims. Bob Weinstein, co-founder of Miramax and brother of Harvey, also paid £ 250,000 pounds to two women, who had accused Harvey of sexual misconduct. However, Bob later stated that nothing related to sexual harassment was conveyed to him while making the payment. His statement was deemed “implausible” by a senior Miramax employee, as several incidents of Harvey’s misbehaviour had been reported to the company. Harvey reportedly had a network of high-profile defence lawyers and investigative companies, which extracted information from the accused under different guises and also silenced them. As per the report, Bill Cosby and the television personality Bill O’Reilly also used nondisclosure agreements to keep the accusations from surfacing.