Entertainment

The Weinstein Company gets investment from Trump confidant Tom Barrack's Colony Capital

Key Points
  • Tom Barrack's Colony Capital is investing in The Weinstein Company, hit by co-founder Harvey Weinstein's sexual harassment scandal.
  • The Weinstein Company is also negotiating the possible sale of part or all of its assets.
  • The firm fired Weinstein after numerous women accused him of sexual harassment over a span of decades.

Colony Capital, headed by billionaire Trump confidante Tom Barrack, will invest in The Weinstein Company, the film firm hit by widespread sexual harassment allegations against co-founder Harvey Weinstein.

The Weinstein Company is also negotiating with Colony about the possible sale of "all or a significant portion" of its assets, the companies said Monday.

In the statement, Barrack said the Weinstein firm has "substantial value and growth potential."

"We will return the Company to its rightful and iconic position in the independent film and television industry," Barrack said.

Numerous women have accused Weinstein, a powerful producer, of sexual harassment over a span of decades, according to reports this month from The New York Times, the New Yorker, and other outlets. He reached at least eight settlements with women over the alleged harassment, according to the Times.

The Weinstein Company's board fired him earlier this month. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences also revoked his membership.

Weinstein has denied accusations of nonconsensual sex and said he did not retaliate against any women for refusing his advances.

The accusations raised questions about whether The Weinstein Company could survive. The firm, behind numerous hits like "Pulp Fiction," "Shakespeare in Love" and "Kill Bill," previously denied reports that it is seeking a sale or shutdown.

Barrack is a longtime friend of President Donald Trump. He headed Trump's inaugural committee. In a candid interview this month with The Washington Post, he said he believes Trump is "better" than what he has shown in office and that he tells Trump "all the time" that he doesn't "like the rhetoric" the president uses.

The allegations against Weinstein have taken on political undertones because he was a major donor to prominent Democrats. Multiple Democratic senators said they would donate his campaign contributions to charity.

President Barack Obama and former secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton denounced Weinstein after coming under pressure to do so.