Uproar over how Harvey Weinstein used charity donation

An agreement between movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and fashion icon Kenneth Cole to donate a portion of the proceeds from an auction item at amfAR’s starry gala to the nonprofit that helped stage “Finding Neverland” has sparked a battle on the AIDS charity’s board.

Four members of the board complained to New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman after Cole — amfAR’s chairman for nearly 13 years — agreed that $600,000 raised by an 2015 auction item donated by Weinstein would go to American Repertory Theater, which helped him stage the Peter Pan musical “Finding Neverland.” The show ran for more than a year on Broadway and closed in August 2016. The ­amfAR money went to ART at Harvard, which was owed money by Weinstein and other investors, but could be paid back by charitable donations.

The four board members — Vincent Roberti, Arlen Andelson, Jonathan Canno and Mervyn Silverman — claim Cole acted improperly when he approved the deal without first putting it before a board vote, and they want Cole out. The 14 other board members, including Harry Belafonte and Diana Taylor, are backing Cole after an internal investigation by law firm Gibson Dunn found no wrongdoing in the deal.

The Weinstein auction item was sold at amfAR’s gala at the Cannes Film Festival for $900,000. The event was attended by the likes of Leo DiCaprio, Karlie Kloss and Kendall Jenner. Insiders insist the deal was legal and is being used to stage a coup to unseat Cole.

The four board members insist this isn’t a power grab and said, “We are extremely concerned about this and other actions by [Cole] and other members of the board, and their apparent failure to abide by our governance policies on a number of occasions, which we believe was in clear violation of their fiduciary duties.”

Schneiderman’s office confirmed its charities bureau was mediating the dispute and not probing the deal. Cole said, “For over a decade, I have been honored to lead amfAR . . . We have raised hundreds of millions of dollars . . . without question as to governance or the integrity of our board members.”

Sources on the amfAR board said that after the Weinstein auction item went for $900,000, rather than the expected $1.2 million, Weinstein – who raised $11 million that night through his friends and contacts – himself agreed to host an extra starry fundraiser in Sept. 2015 attended by the likes of Jay Z, Leo DiCaprio and Ryan Reynolds, which raised an additional $2 million for amfAR.

Weinstein – who is not a member of amfAR’s board but is a longtime donor and is said to have raised more than $50 million for the organization – also made a personal donation of $1 million to amfAR in the name of his late mother Miriam Weinstein, who loved their galas and died in November 2016.

Weinstein declined numerous requests to comment.