Harvey Weinstein Is Fired After Sexual Harassment Reports

The Weinstein Company fired its co-founder Harvey Weinstein on Sunday, after a New York Times investigation uncovered allegations that he had engaged in rampant sexual harassment, dealing a stunning blow to a producer known for shaping American film and championing liberal causes.

The statement announcing the firing said the decision had been made “in light of new information about misconduct by Harvey Weinstein that has emerged in the past few days.” In an interview, Lance Maerov, one of the company’s four board members, said it had been brought to their attention that Mr. Weinstein had violated the company’s code of conduct at some point in the past week, but he would not specify what the violation was.

Mr. Maerov said Mr. Weinstein had been notified of his termination by email Sunday evening. The action was taken by Mr. Maerov, Bob Weinstein (Mr. Weinstein’s brother), Richard Koenigsberg and Tarak Ben Ammar. A fifth board member, Paul Tudor Jones, resigned on Saturday.

The firing was an escalation from Friday, when one-third of the company’s all-male board resigned and four members who remained announced that Mr. Weinstein would take a leave of absence while an outside lawyer investigated the allegations.

Harvey Weinstein could not be reached for comment, and Bob Weinstein declined to comment. Together, Harvey Weinstein and his brother own 42 percent of the company; Mr. Maerov said it was not yet clear what would happen with his share.

The sexual harassment allegations uncovered by The Times stretched back decades and came from actresses as well as former employees of the Weinstein Company and Miramax, the previous company that Mr. Weinstein and his brother founded.

They sent the company scrambling to do damage control, with Bob Weinstein outlining the fallout in an email to Mr. Weinstein’s legal adviser, Lisa Bloom.

“The Democrats are giving Harvey’s money back,” he wrote on Friday morning, referring to politicians who were unloading political contributions they had received from Mr. Weinstein to women’s groups. “Women’s rights organizations are offended by his actions and are now calling for him to be fired. Actors and actresses in the community are appalled at Harvey and have gone on the record as such.”

The situation was complicated by Harvey Weinstein’s response to the Times article, swinging wildly between contrition and attack. In a statement on Thursday, he acknowledged that “the way I’ve behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it,” while likening his personal flaws to those of the rapper Jay-Z, who apologized on his most recent album to his wife, Beyoncé, for cheating on her.

Mr. Weinstein said he was planning to get help, but within hours, he had threatened to sue The Times for defamation. And in her own statement released on Thursday, Ms. Bloom said Mr. Weinstein “denies many of the accusations as patently false.”

Ms. Bloom told the company’s board on Thursday that Mr. Weinstein was planning to follow through with a lawsuit, and that board members could expect “more and different reporting” that would include “photos of several of the accusers in very friendly poses with Harvey after his alleged misconduct.”