Harvey Weinstein is seeking to pursue arbitration over his firing from The Weinstein Company.
The disgraced movie mogul – who was sentenced to 23 years in prison earlier this year after being found guilty of first-degree criminal sex act and third-degree rape – believes he was wrongfully terminated from the film studio he co-founded alongside his brother, Bob Weinstein, when he was sacked in October 2017 after the first allegations of sexual misconduct were made against him.
And according to court documents filed this week in Delaware, Harvey is seeking to follow up on an arbitration case he filed just weeks after his firing, where he claimed his contract was terminated against the employment agreement.
The Weinstein Company is currently going through bankruptcy proceedings after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018, and Harvey is asking the judge presiding over the case to lift the automatic stay that halts legal proceedings involving the company whilst the bankruptcy case is ongoing.
Julia Klein, the attorney who filed the paperwork on Harvey’s behalf, wrote: "Newly discovered information and facts, gleaned during the course of investigation and discovery in collateral matters, have yielded evidence that corroborates the wrongful termination claim that is subject of the arbitration."
According to the filing, Harvey entered into an employment agreement with The Weinstein Company in 2015 that includes a provision requiring binding arbitration in New York for any dispute between the parties, including claims for discrimination and for violation of any federal, state or local law.
The news comes after Harvey was hit with yet another sexual assault allegation earlier this month, when an anonymous woman claimed she was raped by the producer at film festivals in France and Canada.
The accuser – who filed the Manhattan federal suit anonymously under the pseudonym Jane Doe – claims she was first approached by Harvey at the Cannes festival in 2007 when she was 22, and says he told her he wanted to discuss her career future in a meeting at his hotel room.
Jane Doe attended the meeting alongside Harvey’s assistant, but alleges that when the assistant left the room, Weinstein started to sexually assault her.
The accuser claims she ran out of the room before anything else happened, but admitted to meeting him twice more during the film festival, and alleged that on their third meeting, Harvey raped her after an evening of partying with a number of people in the film industry.
Harvey allegedly assaulted the woman several other times over the next nine years, including once at the Toronto Film Festival in 2014.
The movie mogul is alleged to have asked her to meet him at his hotel room to discuss her career, and is said to have assured her he "wouldn’t do anything".
After the actress agreed to meet him, she alleges he once again "forced himself physically" on her.