The producer went to extreme lengths to silence his accusers.
Just over a month has passed since
several women came forward with accusations of sexual harassment regarding Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.
Ronan Farrow, an investigative journalist for The New Yorker, has uncovered further sordid details regarding Weinstein and the "machine that was so instrumental in keeping this quiet as long as it was quiet."
In a detailed report for
The New Yorker magazine titled “Harvey Weinstein’s Army of Spies,” Farrow describes the sinister and elaborate plan that concocted by the producer to try and silence his accusers and to stop their stories from being released.
Actress Rose McGowan - one of the first people to speak out against Weinstein - was among those who said she was targeted by Weinstein’s gang of private investigators.
Weinstein hired private security firms to gather information on McGowan and other women. Other journalists that were investigating Weinstein's behaviour were also being monitored.
The companies that Weinstein used were Kroll - a corporate investigation and risk consulting firm based in Manhatten - as well as Black Cube, a Tel Aviv-based intelligence firm whose leaders include former officers of the leading spy agency in Israel.
Despite Kroll playing a big part in the investigation by Weinstein, Farrow believes that "Weinstein’s intelligence-gathering operation was carried out in large part by Black Cube."
According to the report, “Weinstein had the agencies ‘target,’ or collect information on, dozens of individuals, and compile psychological profiles that sometimes focused on their personal or sexual histories. 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."
