Harvey Weinstein is an American former film producer and convicted sex offender. In 1979, Weinstein and his brother, Bob Weinstein, co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, which produced several successful independent films including Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989); The Crying Game (1992); Pulp Fiction (1994); Heavenly Creatures (1994); Flirting with Disaster (1996); and Shakespeare in Love (1998). Weinstein won an Academy Award for producing Shakespeare in Love and also won seven Tony Awards for plays and musicals including The Producers, Billy Elliot the Musical, and August: Osage County. After leaving Miramax, Weinstein and his brother Bob founded The Weinstein Company (TWC), a mini-major film studio. He was co-chairman, alongside Bob, from 2005 to 2017.
In October 2017, following sexual abuse allegations dating back to the late 1970s, Weinstein was dismissed from his company and expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. More than 80 women made allegations of sexual harassment or rape against him by October 31. The allegations sparked the #MeToo social media campaign and subsequent sexual abuse allegations against many powerful men worldwide; this phenomenon is referred to as the "Weinstein effect".
In May 2018, Weinstein was arrested and charged with rape in New York and then in February 2020, he was found guilty of two of five felony counts. Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison, and began serving his sentence at Wende Correctional Facility. On July 20, 2021, Weinstein was extradited to Los Angeles to face further charges at a subsequent trial, where he was found guilty of three of seven charges on December 19, 2022.[10] Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in the Los Angeles trial, with his California prison term required to be served separately from his New York sentence. In April 2023, he was extradited from California to New York, returning to Mohawk Correctional Facility. On April 25, 2024, the New York Court of Appeals overturned the New York rape convictions because of "egregious errors" of procedure, ordering a retrial.
Weinstein remains in prison because of the California conviction. After the 2024 New York Court of Appeals decision, Weinstein was transferred back to New York's Riker's Island prison, with plans being made for a retrial to take place in New York in September 2024. On July 19, 2024, it was ruled that Weinstein would be retried for the New York sex abuse charges, with a retrial start date tentatively set for November 12, 2024.
