Chapter 492 Harvey Weinstein Arrested

In its fourth week of release, "American Beauty" earned $65.01 million in 3,003 theaters in North America, bringing the North American box office to $157 million.

The reputation of the movie continues to rise, and the media and movie fans are in a state of praising it.

They praised Link for his high level and high output in filmmaking, saying that he not only produces commercial blockbusters that everyone likes to watch every year, but also produces high-quality films such as "American Beauty", "Saving Private Ryan", "The English Patient", "The Sixth Sense" and "Seven Deadly Sins".

The magazine "Cahiers du Cinema" suggested that other directors learn from Link, make more films every year, and make films that are popular with the public and of high artistic quality.

In December, guess what - MGM has another movie coming out, it's the supermodel biography "Sex and the City" starring Angelina Jolie, which tells the tragic and gorgeous life of Gia Carangi, the first American supermodel in the 1970s and 1980s.

In order to play the role of "Gia" well, Angelina Jolie tried to become a lesbian and almost changed her orientation after the filming was completed. However, with the help of Link, she adjusted herself little by little.

"The Last Airbender" was released in 7 theaters in the United States in its first week, earning $104,000. The box office performance was average, but the film's reputation was relatively positive, and Angelina Jolie's performance was also recognized by film critics. She is considered to be the most powerful actor of the younger generation.

Angelina Jolie decided to take some time off after the release of the movie and have a baby, and Link agreed to her request.

"How's the investigation going?"

In the office, Link chats with lawyer Sean Tang.

Sean Tang has been his personal lawyer since 1992 and has worked beside him for more than six years. He has grown from a small fry in the legal profession to a top lawyer, and his income has also increased from tens of thousands of dollars a year to tens of millions of dollars.

But Sean has aged a lot, he is in his fifties, with gray hair on his temples, deep and eye-catching wrinkles on his forehead and nasolabial lines at the corners of his mouth, which also makes the old man look imposing and majestic.

"It's going well. The evidence we have now includes the testimony of the middleman 'Jack', the transfer records of Harvey's account, two recordings of Harvey privately clamoring to use extreme measures against you, and the testimony of three Miramax Films employees, including Harvey's former assistant. With this evidence, it won't be difficult to convict Harvey."

Sean Tang said.

Link nodded. "William Bratton called me and asked us not to bring up the New York shooting in 1996 during the lawsuit. The case has been closed. Retrial will be very troublesome and many people will be held responsible for it. If we don't bring up the New York shooting, can we convict Harvey based on the existing evidence?"

Sean Tang frowned and thought, then nodded after a moment.

"Can!"

——

Boom boom boom

At Miramax, Bob Weinstein walked into Harvey's office. "I heard Boris came to see you. What have you been doing?"

Borispol is their lawyer.

"Shut up! I'm your brother, don't talk to me in that tone."

Harvey shouted angrily.

Bob sighed, slowed down his tone and asked again.

Harvey's face looked very ugly at this moment. Layer upon layer of gray-brown eye bags surrounded his narrow eyes. The skin on his face became even more uneven because of his heavy expression. It was like a cheap cemetery in the suburbs, messy and uneven.

Harvey took a puff of his cigar and said, "I agree to file for bankruptcy."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes, go ahead and do it. According to your plan, use the remaining funds to start a small film company and shoot low-budget films. I will not interfere with the work of the new company."

"Why? Why did you suddenly change your mind?"

“You don’t need to know that much.”

Harvey said sullenly.

"I need to know everything, otherwise I can't work with peace of mind."

Bob, with his big belly, refused to give in.

Harvey stared at him for a moment, then lowered his head to smoke his cigar, "I'm being targeted by Link's men."

"Link? He's worth tens of billions, why is he staring at you?"

"It's something else."

Harvey hesitated for a moment, then slowly told the truth.

Since 1996, in order to eliminate Link, his rival, he contacted the killer organization through Epstein and tried to assassinate Link on the streets of New York, but failed.

This year he conspired with Epstein and hired a killer to attack Link again, but still failed.

Link's revenge also came.

Since September, someone has been tracking and investigating him and Epstein, probably Link's people.

Just now, lawyer Borispol found him and told him some rumors in the legal community. Someone was investigating him and had found key evidence. He would be in trouble next, and Boris asked him to be prepared in advance.

"You were the one who assassinated Link?"

Bob shouted in shock, "Why do you want to do this? Even if Link dies, guess what, if the film company goes bankrupt, we at Miramax won't be the biggest beneficiary. What's the point of doing this?"

"Without Link and Guess What, Miramax would have a chance to become stronger, I would have more resources, and my status in Hollywood would be higher. I could even replace Link as the king of Hollywood, letting everyone look up to me and all women kneel down and pray to me. This means more than anything else."

Harvey retorted excitedly.

"But we are filmmakers. All competition should be in the film industry. You really shouldn't be so extreme. Forget it. It's meaningless to say this now. Link is investigating you and Epstein. What are you going to do? Can you find a way to make Link give up the investigation?"

"Impossible. Link is narrow-minded and ruthless. If he finds evidence that Jeffrey and I hired someone to kill someone, he will never let us go easily. But we are not without allies. Jeffrey is a high-level broker and knows many big names, including those in politics and business. Many of them are from our clan. As long as they are willing to help, we will definitely defeat Link. We will definitely do it."

Harvey clenched his fists tightly, his tone and eyes were firm.

"Are you sure someone will help?"

"Of course, we assassinated Link not for personal gain, but for the sake of the entire tribe. As long as Link is eliminated, Hollywood will return to our tribe. We can continue to use film and television works to promote the superiority of our tribe and maintain the image of our tribe. This is very important. I believe they can understand our approach."

Bob shook his head, not quite agreeing with Harvey's point of view.

On the one hand, the methods used by Harvey and Epstein to deal with Link were too extreme. No matter in which field, they were violations of industry rules and should be criticized and resisted.

Even Bill Gates, Buffett and other fellow people would not support him in doing so.

If they support it, someone will use this method against them in the future.

This is the last thing these wealthy people want to encounter.

On the other hand, Link’s power is too strong. He is not only the overlord of the film industry, but also has a very high status in the investment field.

He is worth tens of billions and owns several investment companies including Flash Gold Capital and Kingsoft Investment. He is also an investor and shareholder of many listed companies.

With Link's current strength, even if Bill Gates and Buffett join forces, they may not be able to defeat him.

Besides, they are collaborators with common interests. It is impossible for them to become enemies with Link for Harvey.

This is also not in line with their racial principle of 'money first'.

Bob sighed and was worried about the situation of Miramax Films. He decided to speed up the bankruptcy of Miramax Films.

Try to finish what needs to be done before anything happens to Harvey and preserve more capital.

"Harvey, Boris said Link has evidence that you hired a killer. What evidence is that?"

Bob asked.

"Not sure, but the middleman who connected us to the assassin organization was arrested. Link's people should have obtained the confession and other evidence by now."

Harvey's hands were shaking.

"You told me that you contacted the middleman through Jeffrey, and the middleman should not know your existence. Why did Boris tell you with certainty that Link got the evidence of your contact with the middleman, not Jeffrey's? Don't you think there is a problem here?"

Bob asked.

Harvey's hand holding the cigar paused at his mouth, his brows furrowed tighter, and his breathing became rapid.

"Maybe Jeffrey let it slip."

"It's more likely that he deliberately threw you out as a shield in order to save his own life."

"No way, Jeffrey wouldn't do that. It would do him no good."

Harvey shouted excitedly.

"Are you sure? If Geoffrey throws you out there to attract Link's attention and anger in order to protect himself, how will you deal with it?"

"No, Jeffrey wouldn't do that."

Harvey continued to deny.

Bob sighed, "Harvey, if I were you, I would take the initiative to contact Link and confess everything, report Jeffrey, and try to get his forgiveness and a lenient sentence. This is the best way to solve the problem."

"No, I don't want to go to jail. Things haven't come to that point yet. We still have a chance. As long as we don't admit it, Link can't do anything to us even if he has a lot of money."

Harvey shook his head repeatedly, unwilling to accept the fact.

"Well, this is your own business. It's up to you to decide whether or not to take the blame for Jeffrey. I just hope you don't regret your decision today when you're in jail in the future."

Seeing that he was stubborn, Bob stopped trying to persuade him and left the office.

Harvey sat in his office chair and continued to smoke his cigar. The room was filled with smoke, just like the expression on his face.

After a while, he picked up the phone and called Epstein, asking him how the middleman was caught and why the middleman knew of his existence?

Epstein acted very surprised on the phone, claiming that he had just received news that the middleman had been arrested and was trying to find a way to rescue him, but he did not expect the middleman to have given instructions in advance.

As for why the middleman knew Harvey, Epstein explained that he had mentioned to the middleman that eliminating Link was not only his idea, but also a proposal from many Jewish executives and investors in Hollywood, including Harvey.

So killing Link was for the benefit of the race, not personal gain.

It is also because of this that the middleman would take the risk to help contact the killer organization.

Harvey asked why the middleman didn't mention Michael Ovitz, Ron Meyer, or Barry Diller, but only mentioned him?

Epstein said he didn't understand the middleman's thoughts, and he would try to rescue the middleman and ask him then.

Harvey accepted this grudgingly.

"It's just that I received news that Link has already obtained evidence of our crimes. Maybe the next step will be to hand it over to the court for trial. What should we do?"

"Don't worry, Harvey. The middleman doesn't have any substantial evidence. Link won't be able to get any useful evidence from him. As long as we deny it and leave the rest to our lawyers, this case will be over in a while."

Epstein advised.

"Okay, I believe you."

Harvey hung up the phone, breathed a sigh of relief, and called lawyer Borispol again, asking him to take full charge of everything.

In early January, Link's attorney Sean Tang filed a complaint with the Los Angeles District Court, accusing Harvey Weinstein of hiring a killer to assassinate Link, endangering public safety, and carrying out terrorist attacks in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles court decided to accept the case and issued a subpoena to Harvey, requiring him to respond to Link's allegations.

After receiving the subpoena, Harvey didn't care, thinking that he could safely get through the crisis as long as he denied it.

But when he saw the evidence submitted by Link, he was shocked.

The evidence included two transfers of $3 million to the same account, which was owned by the middleman 'Jack'.

The evidence also included the confession of the middleman "Jack", who stated that he had contacted Harvey directly on both occasions.

There are also private recordings of Harvey.

"No way, this can't be true."

After reading the evidence, Harvey was sweating all over. He picked up the phone and called Epstein, but the call didn't go through. He called again, but the other party's phone was turned off.

"Damn it! Jeffrey, what are you doing?"

Harvey slumped down in his office chair, looking pale.

At this moment, no matter how stupid he was, he knew that he had been deceived, deceived by his most trusted compatriot. As Bob said, he became a shield thrown out by Jeffrey.

Harvey roared angrily a few times, picked up the phone and called Link, ready to report Epstein to Link.

Unfortunately, the call didn't go through, so he contacted Link's lawyer through his lawyer, hoping to talk to Link and tell him some information.

Sean Tang asked him to speak in court if he had anything to say, as it was not appropriate to have private contact at this stage.

Harvey then called Michael Ovitz, Ron Meyer, Barry Diller and others for help.

Hearing that he was suspected of hiring someone to assassinate Link and that Link's side had found evidence, Michael and his friends hung up the phone without waiting for him to make a request, and then put his number on the blacklist.

Harvey fainted in a rage.

Just three days later, the Los Angeles District Court detained Harvey for trial on the grounds that he was suspected of multiple criminal cases and the evidence was solid.

After the news broke, Hollywood and the world film industry were shocked.

Although Harvey's fame in the film industry is not as great as that of the presidents of the seven major film studios, he is considered one of the representative figures in the independent film industry.

In addition, he was suspected of hiring someone to assassinate Monopoly director Link.

In August and September last year, Link was assassinated twice in succession. The incident caused a sensation and was reported by media around the world.

Now the murderer has been found, it's none other than Harvey Weinstein, former president of Miramax Films.

There are so many interesting points in this news that after being reported by media such as the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, it quickly caused a sensation across the United States.

Earlier media reports said that the reason why Link was assassinated was that Guess What Pictures performed too well, which aroused the envy of his peers, and that his peers hired someone to kill him.

Many people don't believe it.

Now it is confirmed that it was indeed done by a colleague.

After the case broke, Disney immediately cut ties, announcing that Harvey Weinstein was fired, and then announced that Miramax Films had gone bankrupt and its valuable assets would be merged into Disney's subsidiary Hollywood Pictures.

At this point, Miramax Films, a well-established independent film company that had existed for more than 20 years, was extinguished.

(End of this chapter)