Movie producer Harvey Weinstein has been charged with rape, sex abuse, criminal sex act and sexual misconduct for incidents involving two women, New York police say.
Weinstein surrendered to authorities at a New York City police station on Friday, months after he was toppled from Hollywood's most powerful ranks by scores of women accusing him of misconduct.
More than 70 women have accused the co-founder of the Miramax film studio and Weinstein Co of sexual misconduct, including rape, with some allegations dating back decades.
The accusations, first reported by the New York Times and the New Yorker last year, gave rise to the #MeToo movement in which hundreds of women have publicly accused powerful men in business, government and entertainment of misconduct.
Weinstein has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone.
He arrived at the station house at about 7.25am local time on Friday.
Police officers escorted him inside as scores of journalists pushed up against barricades for pictures and video, while three helicopters hovered overhead. He is due to appear later in the morning for arraignment at a Manhattan courthouse where a judge is expected to release him on bail, according to media reports.
Weinstein's spokesman Juda Engelmayer and his lawyer Benjamin Brafman both declined to comment to Reuters on Thursday on the imminent charges.
The charges follow a months-long investigation that involved the Manhattan district attorney's office.
The victim in the rape case has not been identified, the Times reported, but Weinstein will be charged with first-degree and third-degree rape. The other case involves allegations by Lucia Evans, a former aspiring actor who told the New Yorker that Weinstein forced her to give him oral sex in 2004, the Times reported.
Entertainment industry heavyweights have distanced themselves from Weinstein - who had been one of Hollywood's most powerful men - since the accusations became public. The board of the Weinstein Co fired him and the company filed for bankruptcy in March. In 2017, he was expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which presents the Oscars.
A former fixture in the most elite entertainment circles of Manhattan and Los Angeles, Weinstein has spent time in Scottsdale, Arizona, where the New York Times said he sought treatment for sex addiction.
London's Metropolitan Police have said they are also investigating an allegation of sexual assault against Weinstein, while prosecutors in Los Angeles said in February they were reviewing three accusations of sexual assault against him.
Brafman said in a May court filing that federal prosecutors in New York had opened a separate criminal investigation into the allegations.
Actor Ashley Judd last month sued Weinstein, saying he cost her a part in 1998 in the film The Lord of the Rings after she rejected his sexual advances, charges that Weinstein has denied.
Actress Rose McGowan, among the first in Hollywood to accuse Weinstein of sexual assault, said in a statement on Thursday that his alleged victims were now "one step closer to justice."
