Lance Maerov, the board member who handled the contract negotiations, acknowledged in an interview that he had been told of settlements, but said that he had assumed they were used to cover up consensual affairs. Mr. Maerov said that his chief concern had been whether Mr. Weinstein’s behavior posed a legal liability for the business, and that after receiving assurances that no company money was used and that no complaints against Mr. Weinstein were pending, he had approved the contract…

The contract came up for renewal just as Ambra Battilana, an Italian model, reported to the police that Harvey Weinstein had groped her during a work meeting at his Manhattan office. (Working with the police, she captured Mr. Weinstein speaking about the encounter in audio that was published along with an article in The New Yorker on Tuesday.)