Harvey Weinstein: Was paid money to keep shut, says former assistant

Zelda Perkins, who is a British citizen, told Financial Times that she and a colleague of hers were paid $165,200 each to keep shut after the duo sounded alert.

She was also made to sign a non-disclosure agreement in 1998 after the money was paid.

However, Perkins said that following a barrage of allegations against the movie mogul, she wanted to do away with her non-disclosure agreement publicly.

Perkins could now be liable to pay damages, since she broke the agreement.

She told the Financial Times: I want to publicly break my non-disclosure agreement."

"Unless somebody does this there won't be a debate about how egregious these agreements are and the amount of duress that victims are put under," Perkins said.

The Weinstein row is one of the nastiest incident to have come out from the multi billion dollar industry.

A string of Hollywood A-listers, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Agelina Jolie and others have shared their stories of how Weinstein at various junctures in their lifetime had harassed them sexually.

Even though Weinstein had played down all accusations as 'patently false', most industry insider have claimed that his notorious behaviour was an 'open secret'.