A slew of celebrities are lining up to defend Harvey Weinstein after he was dragged into an ugly funding row for a prominent AIDS charity.
DailyMail.com understands that George Clooney, Johnny Depp and Ryan Gosling are all prepared to say the movie mogul did nothing wrong in the dispute over amfAR.
Others who are prepared to speak on his behalf are Naomi Campbell and Heidi Klum, a source said.
The row is over $600,000 that was raised at amfAR’s gala dinner at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2015 and was given to the American Repertory Theater (ART) at Harvard.
Four members of the amfAR board have complained to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman because they say the nonprofit’s chairman Kenneth Cole did not consult them before agreeing that the auction could raise money for both amfAR and ART.
Getting backing: Harvey Weinstein, the Miramax film boss, is expecting to receive support from a field of celebrities including George Clooney amid a row over how AIDS charity amfAR dealt with a charity auction
Supporter: Ryan Gosling is prepared to line up behind Weinstein, the multiple Oscar-winning movie mogul, amid a row over an AIDS charity’s fundraising effortds
More support: Heidi Klum and Naomi Campbell also have Harvey Weinstein’s back, sources told DailyMail.com
A source at amfAR said that Weinstein, the founder of Miramax, was ‘so upset’ that the dispute has become public in a charity that he has supported for two decades.
Over that time he is understood to have raised $50 million through high profile balls and galas.
A source said that Weinstein ‘couldn’t believe’ the allegations and see them as an attempt to remove Cole, the fashion designer, from his post
‘They are just trying to get rid of him so that they can take over amfAR for the benefit of their buddies,’ the source said.
The $600,000 was part of the money raised at the auction at the glitzy ball in Cannes in 2015 for an item provided by Weinstein.
Cole had agreed that the auction item could raise money for both amfAR and ART, with Weinstein’s company pledging to raise $600,000 for both.
It was a private photo shoot with Mario Testino, tickets to the new James Bond premiere next to Daniel Craig, two tickets to the Golden Globes, two tickets to the Golden Globes party and two tickets to the Oscars party and the Oscar weekend.
Board chair: Kenneth Cole, the shoe tycoon, is the head of the amfAR board an agreed the auction split at the center of the row
DailyMail.com understands that it went for a total $950,000, of which $350,000 went to amfAR.
Cole is said to have given the remaining $600,000 to ART, which had helped Weinstein stage the Peter Pan musical ‘Finding Neverland’.
Weinstein and other investors owed money to the ART but it could be paid back through charitable donations.
But that was not what annoyed the four amfAR board members; Vincent Roberti, Arlen Andelson, Jonathan Canno and Mervyn Silverman.
They say that Cole did not put it to a board vote before agreeing the allocation and say it is an offense for which he should resign.
The four are understood to see this as a ‘governance issue’ with Cole and not a problem with Weinstein.
The board members are said to feel that Cole exacerbated the problem by approving the $600,000 payment over the objections of the amfAR chief finance officer, chief executive and general counsel – the board were not informed until later.
It is understood that amfAR hired New York based lawyer Tom Ajamie to scrutinize the payment but after his conclusions were presented to the board a second law firm was hired to do the same job, at an additional cost of $500,000.
The second law firm was Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, also based in New York.
The intervention of the four board members has split amfAR and the 11 others on the board are understood to be backing Cole.
In a statement the four board members who oppose him said it was their ‘obligation’ to take action.
They said: ‘Each one of us cares deeply about amfAR’s mission to find a cure for AIDS, and we’re incredibly passionate about the work we do as a scientific organization.
‘As members of the Board of Trustees with decades of combined service, we are acutely aware that our duty is first and foremost to protect this organization for the benefit of the people we serve and our loyal donors.
‘We are extremely concerned about this and other actions by our non-executive Chairman and other members of the board and their apparent failure to abide by our governance policies on a number of occasions, which we believe was in clear violation of their fiduciary duties to the organization’.
Despite the row it is understood that Weinstein would not be ending his relationship with amfAR and will continue to raise money until a cure for AIDS was found.
Weinstein offered to write a check for $600,000 if there was any sense of impropriety but he was told he did not need to, it is understood.
He also hosted another benefit event for amfAR in September 2015 with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jay Z, which raised $2 million for amfAR including a $1 million donation from Weinstein himself.
Weinstein’s office declined to comment.
Owed money: Weinstein’s Miramax owed money to the ART in Harvard for its involvement in the musical version of Finding Neverland, which went on to Broadway
Sticking with it: Weinstein is refusing to back down from his fundraising, saying Kenneth Cole is the target of a plot by a minority of board members
Eric Soufer, a spokesman for Schneiderman told the Financial Times: ‘Our charities bureau is working with amfAR in connection with a dispute among board members with the goal of achieving a resolution as expeditiously as possible’.
In a statement to the Financial Times Cole said: ‘For over a decade, I have been honoured to lead amfAR’s mission to find a cure for the 37m people still living with HIV/Aids.
‘During that time, we have raised hundreds of millions of dollars to fight this battle without question as to governance or the integrity of our board members and the philanthropists who have stood with us.
‘In the spirit of being diligent as well as transparent, we had independent legal counsel review the contribution in question, and they concluded that nothing illegal or inappropriate had occurred’.