Sleazy: Harvey Weinstein's Contract Allowed for Sexual Harassment

Serial sexual harasser Harvey Weinstein’s contract with The Weinstein Company (TWC) included a clause that allowed for his sexual harassment as long as he paid the costs of settlements out of his own pocket, TMZ reported Thursday.

Therefore, it appears, Weinstein may have been wrongfully terminated by TWC.

According to Weinstein’s 2015 employment contract, as seen by TMZ, if he got sued for sexual harassment or any other “misconduct” resulting in a settlement or judgment against TWC, as long as Weinstein paid the company what the company paid out, plus a fine, he was good to go.

The contract reportedly states: “You [Weinstein] will pay the company liquidated damages of $250,000 for the first such instance, $500,000 for the second such instance, $750,000 for the third such instance, and $1,000,000 for each additional instance.”

According to the contract, a payout by Weinstein constituted a “cure” for the misconduct and no further action could be taken.

In other words, TMZ explained, “Weinstein could be sued over and over and as long as he wrote a check, he keeps his job.”

Harvey Levin, TMZ’s executive producer, appeared on Fox News’ The Story with Martha MacCallum Thursday evening to discuss their scoop.

“Essentially, for the last two years, [The Weinstein Company] has been acknowledging that they absolutely know that this is going on,” MacCallum pointed out.

“Martha, when the contract was signed, a member of the board of directors has now said, they knew about settlements,” Levin replied. “He said we assumed — assumed that they were consensual sexual relationships that they wanted to keep secret. Now, they can fire Harvey Weinstein for fraud, but there’s no fraud when they make an assumption without even asking him! So then the issue is, how were they able to fire him? Because they just summarily did it. They didn’t send him any kind of notice as to why, and the contract says he has the right to go into mediation and arbitration. So it looks to me, based on what I’ve seen, that he has a real case against the company for being wrongfully terminated.”

“The bigger issue,” he argued, “is the company structured a contract that essentially allows for sexual harassment if you’re willing to pay a monetary price.”

Weinstein is now under investigation by the FBI, NYPD, and Scotland Yard.