Film producer Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused of allegedly sexually harassing or assaulting almost 60 women, began to hire private investigators in the fall of 2016 to silence their allegations. According to the New Yorker, Weinstein used these security agencies to collect information on these women and journalists attempting to publish their allegations.
Black Cube
The New Yorker article states Weinstein hired companies such as Black Cube, a company run by Israeli intelligence agencies, including Mossad, Israel's spy agency. Two Black Cube employees, using false identities, met with actress Rose McGowan to get information from her.
According to the article, these employees would also falsify their identities as victims of Weinstein and would speak to journalists to find out if other victims were speaking to them.
According to the New Yorker article -- which was written by Ronan Farrow, the investigative journalist who originally published the allegations against Weinstein -- the goals written in the contract with Black Cube were to prevent victims and journalists from publishing the allegations against Weinstein. Some of the information collected from the victims included personal and sexual histories. According to Farrow's reporting, Weinstein personally followed these investigations.
The employees
McGowan received an email from a Diana Filip, the alias for a former officer in Israeli Defense Forces who worked with Black Cube.
Filip said she worked at Reuben Capital Partners, a wealth-management firm in London, and was creating an initiative to fight discrimination against women in the workplace. According to the New Yorker, she allegedly asked McGowan to speak at the kickoff event for the initiative. McGowan spoke with Filip several times and said she was pressing her for information about Weinstein.
According to Farrow, this same woman contacted reporters pursuing these allegations but used the name "Anna." The cell phone numbers given to McGowan have since been disconnected, as well as the website of the company Filip said she worked with.
Weinstein has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex. According to the Washington Post, a spokeswoman told the New Yorker that Weinstein never retaliated against these women once they turned down his advances. She said it is "fiction" to suggest the accusors were silenced or targeted by Weinstein.
