A PRODUCER has filed a criminal complaint alleging that The Weinstein Co. defrauded a German regional government out of nearly US$2 million in connection with the financing of “The Reader,” the 2008 drama that starred Kate Winslet in an Oscar-winning role.

Producer Michael Simon de Normier said that he signed a non-disclosure agreement with TWC during the making of the Stephen Daldry film but has now chosen to break it following the tsunami of sexual harassment and assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein, who was fired from TWC’s board last month.

De Normier filed the complaint last week with the economic crimes and corruption division of the state police in the western German region of North-Rhein Westphalia. It alleges that TWC did not pay back loans it received from the government-backed film subsidy group Film und Medien Stiftung NRW to finance “The Reader.”

In 2007, the tax-funded film subsidy body loaned TWC 1.5 million euros (about US$2 million at the time) to produce the movie in exchange for shooting a portion of the film in its region. The conditions of the loan required TWC to repay it after “The Reader” recouped its production costs. The film spent 19 days in the area and shot interiors, including the seduction scenes between Winslet and German actor David Kross that make up the first act in the film.

“The Reader” went on to gross nearly US$109 million at the worldwide box office. Sources close to Film und Medien Stiftung say that TWC, however, paid back only a small portion, just a few hundred thousand dollars, of the original loan.

“The Reader” might not be the only case in which TWC failed to repay German taxpayers. Quentin Tarantino’s World War II drama “Inglourious Basterds,” also produced by TWC, received a state-backed loan of 600,000 euros from the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg but, sources say, TWC has paid back “less than half” of that — despite the film raking in more than US$300 million worldwide. In the case of “The Reader,” accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers signed off on TWC revenue statements submitted to NRW in 2010 and 2014 that claimed that the film did not earn profits sufficient to repay the loan. De Normier called the statements “pure fantasy.”

(SD-Agencies)