This Dec. 2, 2013, file photo, shows Bryan Singer at the Los Angeles premiere of "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug." Singer has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle allegations that he raped a then-17-year-old boy on a yacht 15 years ago. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, File)
SEATTLE (AP) --
Movie director Bryan Singer has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle allegations that he raped a then-17-year-old boy on a yacht 15 years ago.
Court records show that Singer, whose credits include "Bohemian Rhapsody," ''Superman Returns" and "The Usual Suspects," continues to deny he assaulted Cesar Sanchez-Guzman or ever attended a party with him on a yacht as it sailed on Lake Union and Lake Washington in Seattle.
A trustee who is overseeing Sanchez-Guzman's bankruptcy case filed a motion Wednesday recommending the settlement be approved. The trustee noted that it would be enough money to pay off the $61,000 in claims against Sanchez-Guzman, pay the costs of administering the case and leave money left over for him.
Sanchez-Guzman sued Singer in King County Superior Court in 2017.
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A man rides past the Tencent headquarters in Beijing, China on Aug. 7, 2020. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)
Paramount Skydance says the Chinese gaming and social media giant Tencent Holdings withdrew from its bid to buy Warner Bros Discovery to avert a possible national security review.
Paramount's revised filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission of its takeover bid said the Chinese company had dropped its $1 billion financing commitment out of concern, since it would be a "non-U.S. equity financing source," that its bid might be subject to a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, known as CFIUS. That was even though approval by CFIUS or by the Federal Communications Commission was not a condition of the bid.
The SEC filing, dated Monday, said that foreign sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar, which are providing $24 billion for Paramount's bid, had agreed to give up a right to participate in Warner Bros' management to avoid the additional scrutiny.
On Monday, Paramount launched a hostile $77.9 billion takeover offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, competing with rival bidder Netflix to buy the company behind HBO, CNN and a famed movie studio.
Big deals that involve foreign companies are sometimes subject to national security reviews by CFIUS, a U.S. government group chaired by the Treasury Secretary that studies mergers for national-security reasons. It has the power to force companies to change ownership structures or divest completely from the U.S.
Under former President Joe Biden as well as President Donald Trump, the Treasury Department has sought to strengthen its powers as national security concerns related to foreign investment have increased.
Tencent is among dozens of Chinese companies that the U.S. Defense Department has included in a list of companies it... Read More
