Weinstein Company Was Aware of Payoffs in 2015

With Harvey Weinstein fired amid escalating allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct, the business he helped create is consumed not just with what he is accused of doing, but with what other company leaders knew and how they responded.

On Tuesday, his brother and co-founder, Bob Weinstein, and the company’s president, David Glasser, told concerned employees in a video conference call that they were shocked by the allegations and unaware of payments made to women who complained of unwanted touching, sexual harassmentand other over-the-line behavior, according to several employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Soon after, Bob Weinstein and three other members of the rapidly dwindling board issued a statement saying that new allegations of extreme sexual misconduct and sexual assault had come as “an utter surprise” and that any “suggestion that the Board had knowledge of this conduct is false.”

But interviews and internal company records show that the company has been grappling with Mr. Weinstein’s behavior for at least two years.

David Boies, a lawyer who represented Mr. Weinstein when his contract was up for renewal in 2015, said in an interview that the board and the company were made aware at the time of three or four confidential settlements with women.

And in the waning hours of last week, as he struggled to retain control of the business in the wake of allegations first reported by The New York Times, Harvey Weinstein fired off an email to his brother and other board members asserting that they knew about the payoffs, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the confidential communication.

Lance Maerov, the board member who handled the contract negotiations, acknowledged in an interview that he had been told of settlements, but said that he had assumed they were used to cover up consensual affairs. Mr. Maerov said that his chief concern had been whether Mr. Weinstein’s behavior posed a legal liability for the business, and that after receiving assurances that no company money was used and that no complaints against Mr. Weinstein were pending, he had approved the contract.

Mr. Glasser declined to comment, as did Bob Weinstein. The board members Tarak Ben Ammar and Richard Koenigsberg did not respond to messages.

The contract came up for renewal just as Ambra Battilana, an Italian model, reported to the police that Harvey Weinstein had groped her during a work meeting at his Manhattan office. (Working with the police, she captured Mr. Weinstein speaking about the encounter in audio that was published along with an article in The New Yorker on Tuesday.)

The district attorney’s office declined to press charges, and Mr. Weinstein insisted that it was a setup, but some board members and top executives worried that Mr. Weinstein had engaged in a pattern of behavior that could jeopardize the company.

After the episode, Mr. Maerov said, Mr. Weinstein refused to let the board review his personnel file directly. Instead, it was examined by an outside lawyer, H. Rodgin Cohen, who assured the board in a September 2015 letter that it was legally safe to retain Mr. Weinstein because there were no unresolved complaints or threats of litigation against him, according to two people who saw the letter and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

In the file, Mr. Cohen came across a single sexual harassment allegation, from 2014, involving a former temporary employee, Emily Nestor, according to a person familiar with his review.

Ms. Nestor was new to the job at the company’s Los Angeles office when Mr. Weinstein invited her to breakfast at the Peninsula Beverly Hills and made her an offer: If she accepted his sexual advances, he would boost her career, according to accounts, viewed by The Times, that she provided to colleagues who passed them along to executives. She declined the offer and never intended to complain to human resources personnel, internal records show.

It is unclear whether the board was told of her allegation — by the executives or by Mr. Cohen, who declined to comment for this article. Mr. Maerov said, “Her name came up in 2015, but I don’t remember who brought it up.”

Mr. Cohen’s letter to the board did not describe the contents of Mr. Weinstein’s file, nor did it address whether Mr. Weinstein had entered into private settlements with women who complained of misconduct.