Oscarnominated director convicted: James Toback has to pay nine -digit sums

The Oscarnominated director James Toback (80) was sentenced to a payment of billions in New York on Wednesday. The filmmaker and screenwriter must pay $ 1.68 billion (the equivalent of around 1.52 billion euros) to 40 women who had accused him of sexual attacks. That shared them. The court awarded the applicants $ 280 million in damages and $ 1.4 billion.

The main attorney of the plaintiffs emphasized the communication of the law firm to the judgment. “But it is even more important that it is about taking the power of the perpetrators – and their supporters – and giving them back to those who try to control them and try to silence,” said the lawyer. In relation to the #Metoo movement, he said that it was “not over. There is more work to do”.

Toback was already accused of sexual misconduct in 2017. The current judgment was now followed by a lawsuit from 2022. This was submitted after the New York Adult Survivors Act made it possible for one year to pursue already statute -barred sex crimes under civil law. So the process that is said to have taken a week occurred. , Toback didn’t appear. He had withdrawn after the allegations against him became known.

The applicants had accused Toback of having exploited his position of power. He is said to have used this to attract young women “by fraud, coercion, violence and intimidation in compromising situations,” quotes from a court document. This is said to have occurred sexual abuse. Toback himself denied it. According to “Variety”, he claimed that all sexual acts were mutually acceptable.

In 1992 Toback was nominated for the gangster film “Bugsy” in the Oscar category “Best original script”.