Thursday afternoon did not bring good news for Robert de Niro and his reputation. After two weeks of negotiations, his producer said Canal Productions faces serious legal consequences after a New York jury declared The company is guilty of gender discrimination and retaliation.
Although the ruling releases De Niro personally, the company must pay more than $1.2 million to his former personal assistant Graham Chase Robinson.
The jury’s final decision revealed that the Oscar winner, Although he owned the company, he was not directly responsible for the abusesbut decided that Canal Productions should pay two sums of $632,142 in favor of Robinsonwho served as De Niro’s personal assistant from 2009 to 2019, the year her resignation sparked a $6 million lawsuit against her by the company.
The Raging Bull star was present for three of the fortnight the trial lasted and gave evidence on two of them. Robinson, 41, said De Niro and his girlfriend Tiffany Chen conspired against him and made the job a nightmare experience. Although the couple argued that Robinson posed a “problem” due to her ambitions to advance at Canal Productions, the jury ruled in favor of the former assistant.
Robert De Niro has been sued by his former assistant, who accuses Portal/Eduardo Munoz of gender discrimination
In his testimony in court, De Niro asserted that he was acting at the request of Robinson himself increased his salary from less than $100,000 a year to $300,000 and assigned her the position of vice president of production and finance, although, in his opinion, her responsibilities remained virtually unchanged.
However, tensions arose following Robinson’s resignation. The actor also pointed out that his former assistant stole nearly $85,000 worth of airline miles, in addition to violating the company’s trust and unwritten rules.
The legal dispute between De Niro and Robinson dates back to 2019. When the woman resigned from her position as vice president of production and finance at Canal Productions and the company filed a $6 million lawsuit against her. He accused her of misusing company credit cards for her personal use, stealing millions of frequent flyer miles before she resigned and watching Netflix series during work hours.
Chase Robinson accused Robert de Niro and his partner Tiffany Chen of conspiring against him during his final days as the actor’s assistant
In this regard, the former assistant’s team described the legendary actor’s allegations as “insulting” and “filled with false accusations designed to deter Robinson from enforcing his claims, destroying his reputation and destroying his employment prospects.” In 2021, The former employee filed a counterclaim in response to Robert’s allegations and asked the court for a sum of 12 million dollars.
Robinson claimed Gender discriminationarguing that De Niro and Canal Productions had violated New York City Human Rights Law since the actor directed it sexist comments, assigned her “stereotypically feminine tasks that were incompatible with her job” and paid her less than her male employee, Dan Harvey, who is her personal trainer.
When the 80-year-old actor went to federal court in New York, he reportedly raised his voice repeatedly during his statement. When asked by Robinson’s lawyer, Andrew Macurdy, whether he had ever insulted her during her 11 years with the company, she replied: the star of ‘Taxi driver’ He admitted that he had reprimanded her.. “I raised my voice,” De Niro said. “I do not scream. Would you like to discuss this? That’s something I don’t do.