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<\/a><\/p>\nIn\u00a0the fall of 2016, Harvey Weinstein set out to suppress allegations that he had sexually harassed or assaulted numerous women. He began to hire private security agencies to collect information on the women and the journalists trying to expose the allegations. According to dozens of pages of documents, and seven people directly involved in the effort, the firms that Weinstein hired included Kroll, which is one of the world\u2019s largest corporate-intelligence companies, and Black Cube, an enterprise run largely by former officers of Mossad and other Israeli intelligence agencies. Black Cube, which has branches in Tel Aviv, London, and Paris, offers its clients the skills of operatives \u201chighly experienced and trained in Israel\u2019s elite military and governmental intelligence units,\u201d according to its literature.<\/p>\n
Two private investigators from Black Cube, using false identities, met with the actress Rose McGowan, who eventually publicly accused Weinstein of rape, to extract information from her. One of the investigators pretended to be a women\u2019s-rights advocate and secretly recorded at least four meetings with McGowan. The same operative, using a different false identity and implying that she had an allegation against Weinstein, met twice with a journalist to find out which women were talking to the press. In other cases, journalists directed by Weinstein or the private investigators interviewed women and reported back the details.<\/p>\n
The explicit goal of the investigations, laid out in one contract with Black Cube, signed in July, was to stop the publication of the abuse allegations against Weinstein that eventually emerged in the\u00a0New York\u00a0Times<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The New Yorker<\/em><\/a>. Over the course of a year, Weinstein had the agencies \u201ctarget,\u201d or collect information on, dozens of individuals, and compile psychological profiles that sometimes focussed on their personal or sexual histories. Weinstein monitored the progress of the investigations personally. He also enlisted former employees from his film enterprises to join in the effort, collecting names and placing calls that, according to some sources who received them, felt intimidating.<\/p>\n In some cases, the investigative effort was run through Weinstein\u2019s lawyers, including David Boies, a celebrated attorney who represented Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential-election dispute and argued for marriage equality before the U.S. Supreme Court. Boies personally signed the contract directing Black Cube to attempt to uncover information that would stop the publication of a\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0story about Weinstein\u2019s abuses, while his firm was also representing the\u00a0Times<\/em>, including in a libel case.<\/p>\n Boies confirmed that his firm contracted with and paid two of the agencies and that investigators from one of them sent him reports, which were then passed on to Weinstein. He said that he did not select the firms or direct the investigators\u2019 work. He also denied that the work regarding the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0story represented a conflict of interest.\u00a0Boies said that his firm\u2019s involvement with the investigators was a mistake. \u201cWe should not have been contracting with and paying investigators that we did not select and direct,\u201d he told me. \u201cAt the time, it seemed a reasonable accommodation for a client, but it was not thought through, and that was my mistake. It was a mistake at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n Techniques like the ones used by the agencies on Weinstein\u2019s behalf are almost always kept secret, and, because such relationships are often run through law firms, the investigations are theoretically protected by attorney-client privilege, which could prevent them from being disclosed in court. The documents and sources reveal the tools and tactics available to powerful individuals to suppress negative stories and, in some cases, forestall criminal investigations.<\/p>\n In a statement, Weinstein\u2019s spokesperson, Sallie Hofmeister, said, \u201cIt is a fiction to suggest that any individuals were targeted or suppressed at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In May, 2017, McGowan received an e-mail from a literary agency introducing her to a woman who identified herself as Diana Filip, the deputy head of sustainable and responsible investments at Reuben Capital Partners, a London-based wealth-management firm. Filip told McGowan that she was launching an initiative to combat discrimination against women in the workplace, and asked McGowan, a vocal women\u2019s-rights advocate, to speak at a gala kickoff event later that year. Filip offered McGowan a fee of sixty thousand dollars. \u201cI understand that we have a lot in common,\u201d Filip wrote to McGowan before their first meeting, in May, at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. Filip had a U.K. cell-phone number, and she spoke with what McGowan took to be a German accent. Over the following months, the two women met at least three more times at hotel bars in Los Angeles and New York and other locations. \u201cI took her to the Venice boardwalk and we had ice cream while we strolled,\u201d McGowan told me, adding that Filip was \u201cvery kind.\u201d The two talked at length about issues relating to women\u2019s empowerment. Filip also repeatedly told McGowan that she wanted to make a significant investment in McGowan\u2019s production company.<\/p>\n Filip was persistent. In one e-mail, she suggested meeting in Los Angeles and then, when McGowan said she would be in New York, Filip said she could meet there just as easily. She also began pressing McGowan for information. In a conversation in July, McGowan revealed to Filip that she had spoken to me as part of my reporting on Weinstein. A week later, I received an e-mail from Filip asking for a meeting and suggesting that I join her campaign to end\u00a0professional discrimination against women. \u201cI am very impressed with your work as a male advocate for gender equality, and believe that you would make an invaluable addition to our activities,\u201d she wrote, using her wealth-management firm\u2019s e-mail address. Unsure of who she was, I did not respond.<\/p>\n Filip continued to meet with McGowan. In one meeting in September, Filip was joined by another Black Cube operative, who used the name Paul and claimed to be a colleague at Reuben Capital Partners. The goal, according to two sources with knowledge of the effort, was to pass McGowan to another operative to extract more information. On October 10th, the day\u00a0The New Yorker<\/em>\u00a0published my story about Weinstein, Filip reached out to McGowan in an e-mail. \u201cHi Love,\u201d she wrote. \u201cHow are you feeling? . . . Just wanted to tell you how brave I think you are.\u201d She signed off with an \u201cxx.\u201d Filip e-mailed McGowan as recently as October 23rd.<\/p>\n In fact, \u201cDiana Filip\u201d was an alias for a former officer in the Israeli Defense Forces who originally hailed from Eastern Europe and was working for Black Cube, according to three individuals with knowledge of the situation. When I sent McGowan photos of the Black Cube agent, she recognized her instantly. \u201cOh my God,\u201d she wrote back. \u201cReuben Capital. Diana Filip. No fucking way.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben Wallace, a reporter at\u00a0New York<\/em>\u00a0who was pursuing a story on Weinstein,\u00a0said that the same woman met with him twice last fall. She identified herself only as Anna and suggested that she had an allegation against Weinstein. When I presented Wallace with the same photographs of Black Cube\u2019s undercover operative, Wallace recalled her vividly. \u201cThat\u2019s her,\u201d he said.\u00a0Like McGowan, Wallace said that the woman had what he assumed to be a German accent, as well as a U.K. cell-phone number. Wallace told me that Anna first contacted him on October 28, 2016, when he had been working on the Weinstein story for about a month and a half. Anna declined to disclose who had given her Wallace\u2019s information. Over the course of the two meetings, Wallace grew increasingly suspicious of her motives. Anna seemed to be pushing him for information, he recalled, \u201cabout the status and scope of my inquiry, and about who I might be talking to, without giving me any meaningful help or information.\u201d During their second meeting, Anna requested that they sit close together, leading Wallace to suspect that she might be recording the exchange. When she recounted her experiences with Weinstein, Wallace said, \u201cit seemed like soap-opera acting.\u201d Wallace wasn\u2019t the only journalist the woman contacted. In addition to her e-mails to me, Filip also e-mailed Jodi Kantor, of the\u00a0Times<\/em>, according to sources involved in the effort.<\/p>\n The U.K. cell-phone numbers that Filip provided to Wallace and McGowan have been disconnected. Calls to Reuben Capital Partners\u2019 number in London went unanswered. As recently as Friday, the firm had a bare-bones Web site, with stock photos and generic text passages about asset management and an initiative called Women in Focus. The site, which has now been taken down, listed an address near Piccadilly Circus, operated by a company specializing in shared office space. That company said that it had never heard of Reuben Capital Partners. Two sources with knowledge of Weinstein\u2019s work with Black Cube said that the firm creates fictional companies to provide cover for its operatives, and that Filip\u2019s firm was one of them.<\/p>\n Black Cube declined to comment on the specifics of any work it did for Weinstein. The agency said in a statement, \u201cIt is Black Cube\u2019s policy to never discuss its clients with any third party, and to never confirm or deny any speculation made with regard to the company\u2019s work. Black Cube supports the work of many leading law firms around the world, especially in the US, gathering evidence for complex legal processes, involving commercial disputes, among them uncovering negative campaigns. . . . It should be highlighted that Black Cube applies high moral standards to its work, and operates in full compliance with the law of any jurisdiction in which it operates\u2014strictly following the guidance and legal opinions provided by leading law firms from around the world.\u201d The contract with the firm also specified that all of its work would be obtained \u201cby legal means and in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Last fall, Weinstein began mentioning Black Cube by name in conversations with his associates and attorneys. The agency had made a name for itself digging up information for companies in Israel, Europe, and the U.S. that led to successful legal judgments against business rivals. But the firm has also faced legal questions about its employees\u2019 use of fake identities and other tactics. Last year, two of its investigators were arrested in Romania on hacking charges. In the end, the company reached an agreement with the Romanian authorities, under which the operatives admitted to hacking and were released. Two sources familiar with the agency defended its decision to work for Weinstein, saying that they originally believed that the assignment focussed on his business rivals. But even the earliest lists of names that Weinstein provided to Black Cube included actresses and journalists.<\/p>\n On October 28, 2016, Boies\u2019s law firm, Boies Schiller Flexner, wired to Black Cube the first hundred thousand dollars, toward what would ultimately be a six-hundred-thousand-dollar\u00a0invoice. (The documents do not make clear how much of the invoice was paid.) The law firm and Black Cube signed a contract that month and several others later. One, dated July 11, 2017, and bearing Boies\u2019s signature, states that the project\u2019s \u201cprimary objectives\u201d are to \u201cprovide intelligence which will help the Client\u2019s efforts to completely stop the publication of a new negative article in a leading NY newspaper\u201d and to \u201cobtain additional content of a book which currently being written and includes harmful negative information on and about the Client,\u201d who is identified as Weinstein in multiple documents. (In one e-mail, a Black Cube executive asks lawyers retained by the agency to refer to Weinstein as \u201cthe end client\u201d or \u201cMr. X,\u201d noting that referring to him by name \u201cwill make him extremely angry.\u201d) The article mentioned in the contract was, according to three sources,\u00a0the story<\/a>\u00a0that ultimately ran in the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0on October 5th. The book was \u201cBrave,\u201d a memoir by McGowan, scheduled for publication by HarperCollins in January. The documents show that, in the end, the agency delivered to Weinstein more than a hundred pages of transcripts and descriptions of the book, based on tens of hours of recorded conversations between McGowan and the female private investigator.<\/p>\n Weinstein\u2019s spokesperson, Hofmeister, called \u201cthe assertion that Mr. Weinstein secured any portion of a book . . . false and among the many inaccuracies and wild conspiracy theories promoted in this article.\u201d<\/p>\n The July agreement included several \u201csuccess fees\u201d if Black Cube met its goals. The firm would receive an additional three hundred thousand dollars if the agency \u201cprovides intelligence which will directly contribute to the efforts to completely stop the Article from being published at all in any shape or form.\u201d Black Cube would also be paid fifty thousand dollars if it secured \u201cthe other half\u201d of McGowan\u2019s book \u201cin readable book and legally admissible format.\u201d<\/p>\n The contracts also show some of the techniques that Black Cube employs. The agency promised \u201ca dedicated team of expert intelligence officers that will operate in the USA and any other necessary country,\u201d including a project manager, intelligence analysts, linguists, and \u201cAvatar Operators\u201d specifically hired to create fake identities on social media, as well as \u201coperations experts with extensive experience in social engineering.\u201d The agency also said that it would provide \u201ca full time agent by the name of \u2018Anna\u2019 (hereinafter \u2018the Agent\u2019), who will be based in New York and Los Angeles as per the Client\u2019s instructions and who will be available full time to assist the Client and his attorneys for the next four months.\u201d Four sources with knowledge of Weinstein\u2019s work with Black Cube confirmed that this was the same woman who met with McGowan and Wallace.<\/p>\n Black Cube also agreed to hire \u201can investigative journalist, as per the Client request,\u201d who would be required to conduct ten interviews a month for four months and be paid forty thousand dollars. Black Cube agreed to \u201cpromptly report to the Client the results of such interviews by the Journalist.\u201d<\/p>\n In January, 2017, a freelance journalist called McGowan and had a lengthy conversation with her that he recorded without telling her; he subsequently communicated with Black Cube about the interviews, though he denied he was reporting back to them in a formal capacity. He contacted at least two other women with allegations against Weinstein, including the actress Annabella Sciorra, who later went public in\u00a0The New Yorker<\/em>\u00a0with a rape allegation against Weinstein. Sciorra, whom he called in August, said that she found the conversation suspicious and got off the phone as quickly as possible. \u201cIt struck me as B.S.,\u201d she told me. \u201cAnd it scared me that Harvey was testing to see if I would talk.\u201d The freelancer also placed calls to Wallace, the\u00a0New York<\/em>\u00a0reporter, and to me.<\/p>\n Two sources close to the effort and several documents show that the same freelancer received contact information for actresses, journalists, and business rivals of Weinstein from Black Cube, and that the agency ultimately passed summaries of those interviews to Weinstein\u2019s lawyers. When contacted about his role, the freelancer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that he had been working on his own story about Weinstein, using contact information fed to him by Black Cube. The freelancer said that he reached out to other reporters, one of whom used material from his interviews, in the hopes of helping to expose Weinstein. He denied that he was paid by Black Cube or Weinstein.<\/p>\n Weinstein also enlisted other journalists to uncover information that he could use to undermine women with allegations. A December, 2016, e-mail exchange between Weinstein and Dylan Howard, the chief content officer of American Media Inc., which publishes the\u00a0National Enquirer<\/em>, shows that Howard shared with Weinstein material obtained by one of his reporters, as part of an effort to help Weinstein disprove McGowan\u2019s allegation of rape. In one e-mail, Howard sent Weinstein a list of contacts. \u201cLet\u2019s discuss next steps on each,\u201d he wrote. After Weinstein thanked him, Howard described a call that one of his reporters made to Elizabeth Avellan, the ex-wife of the director Robert Rodriguez, whom Rodriguez left to have a relationship with McGowan.<\/p>\n Avellan told me that she remembered the interview. Howard\u2019s reporter \u201ckept calling and calling and calling,\u201d she said, and also contacted others close to her. Avellan finally called\u00a0back, because \u201cI was afraid people might start calling my kids.\u201d In a long phone call, the reporter pressed her for unflattering statements about McGowan. She insisted that the call be off the record, and the reporter agreed. The reporter recorded the call, and subsequently passed the audio to Howard.<\/p>\n In subsequent e-mails to Weinstein, Howard said, \u201cI have something AMAZING . . . eventually she laid into Rose pretty hard.\u201d Weinstein replied, \u201cThis is the killer. Especially if my fingerprints r not on this.\u201d Howard then reassured Weinstein, \u201cThey are not. And the conversation . . . is RECORDED.\u201d The next day, Howard added, in another e-mail, \u201cAudio file to follow.\u201d (Howard denied sending the audio to Weinstein.) Avellan told me that she would not have agreed to co\u00f6perate in efforts to discredit McGowan. \u201cI don\u2019t want to shame people,\u201d she said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t interested. Women should stand together.\u201d<\/p>\n In a statement, Howard said that, in addition to his role as the chief content officer at American Media Inc., the\u00a0National Enquirer\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0publisher, he oversaw a television-production agreement with Weinstein, which has since been terminated. He said that, at the time of the e-mails, \u201cabsent a corporate decision to terminate the agreement with The Weinstein Company, I had an obligation to protect AMI\u2019s interests by seeking out\u2014but not publishing\u2014truthful information about people who Mr. Weinstein insisted were making false claims against him. To the extent I provided \u2018off the record\u2019 information to Mr. Weinstein about one of his accusers\u2014at a time when Mr. Weinstein was denying any harassment of any woman\u2014it was information which I would never have allowed AMI to publish on the internet or in its magazines.\u201d Although at least one of Howard\u2019s reporters made calls related to Weinstein\u2019s investigations, Howard insisted that he strictly divided his work with Weinstein from his work as a journalist. \u201cI always separated those two roles carefully and completely\u2014and resisted Mr. Weinstein\u2019s repeated efforts to have AMI titles publish favorable stories about him or negative articles about his accusers,\u201d Howard said. An A.M.I. representative noted that, at the time, Weinstein insisted that the encounter was consensual, and that the allegations were untrue.<\/p>\n Hofmeister, Weinstein\u2019s spokesperson, added, \u201cIn regard to Mr. Howard, he has served as the point person for American Media\u2019s long-standing business relationship with The Weinstein Company. Earlier this year, Mr. Weinstein gave Mr. Howard a news tip that Mr. Howard agreed might make a good story. Mr. Howard pursued the tip and followed up with Mr. Weinstein as a courtesy, but declined to publish any story.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Weinstein\u2019s relationship with Kroll, one of the other agencies he contracted with, dates back years. After Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, an Italian model, accused Weinstein of sexually assaulting her, in 2015, she reached a settlement with Weinstein that required her to surrender all her personal devices to Kroll, so that they could be wiped of evidence of a conversation in which Weinstein admitted to groping her. A\u00a0recording of that exchange<\/a>, captured during a police sting operation, was released by\u00a0The New Yorker<\/em>\u00a0last month.<\/p>\n During the more recent effort to shut down emerging stories, Kroll again played a central role. E-mails show that Dan Karson, the chairman of Kroll Americas\u2019 Investigations and Disputes practice, contacted Weinstein at his personal e-mail address with information about women with allegations. In one October, 2016, e-mail, Karson sent Weinstein eleven photographs of McGowan and Weinstein together at different events in the years after he allegedly assaulted her. Three hours later, Weinstein forwarded Karson\u2019s e-mail to Boies and Weinstein\u2019s criminal-defense attorney, Blair Berk, and told them to \u201cscroll thru the extra ones.\u201d The next morning, Berk replied that one photo, which showed McGowan warmly talking with Weinstein, \u201cis the money shot.\u201d<\/p>\n Berk defended her actions. \u201cAny criminal-defense lawyer worth her salt would investigate unproven allegations to determine if they are credible,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it would be dereliction of duty not to conduct a public-records search for photographs of the accuser embracing the accused taken after the time of the alleged assault.\u201d<\/p>\n