15, 2019, Spyglass settled two major claims, including $11 million for Viacom regarding the television series Scream and the film Sin City 2 (which Lantern did not acquire). Civil rights investigation On October 23, 2017, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman launched a civil rights investigation into whether the Weinstein Company violated state civil rights and New York City human rights laws in its handling of sexual harassment complaints and other types of discrimination against employees. The attorney general's Civil Rights Bureau sent the company a subpoena seeking a long list of documents, including any documents and communications related to private out-of-court settlements struck with accusers. A group of Weinstein Company employees published a public statement in The New Yorker asking to be released from their signed nondisclosure agreements, which prohibit them from speaking out about their time at the company. In their statement, they wrote, "We all knew that we were working for a man with an infamous temper. We did not know we were working for a serial sexual predator." They asked the company to lift their NDAs so they could "speak openly, and get to the origins of what happened here, and how." On February 11, 2018, Schneiderman filed a civil rights lawsuit against the company, Harvey and Bob Weinstein, just shortly before an anticipated announcement that the company would be purchased by an investor group led by Maria Contreras-Sweet. In the lawsuit, the company and both Weinsteins were accused of violating civil rights and gender discrimination laws, stating that it had "repeatedly and persistently treated female employees less well than male-employees through gender-based hostile workplace harassment, quid pro quo harassment, and discrimination" by maintaining "a group of female employees whose primary job it was to accompany HW (sic) to events and to facilitate HW’s sexual conquests". In addition, the lawsuit includes information that the company's Chief Operating Officer communicated with the Human Resources Director about complaints where settlements and non-disclosure agreements were needed, with the H.R. Director not being involved in any investigation or resolution process "on more than one occasion", and details on verbal abuse and threats by Harvey Weinstein that he would (in substance) kill employees, directly or indirectly via claims that he "had connections to the Secret Service who could solve problems for him". In filing the lawsuit, Schneiderman sought to force the company to address several points: to give up non-disclosure agreements