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James Franco will pay $2.2M to settle suit from 2 former students alleging sexual exploitation, fraud

Actor James Franco attends the 24th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at The Shrine Auditorium on Jan. 21, 2018 in Los Angeles. (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Turner)

James Franco will pay more than $2.2 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by two former students at his acting school, pending court approval, according to court documents filed last week and made public Wednesday.

This comes after news in February that a deal had been reached.


A total of $2,235,000 is proposed to be split as follows, according to the documents filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court: $894,000 to settle sexual exploitation claims and $1,341,000 to a common fund to settle the fraud claims. The defendants are admitting no liability.

In return, the named plaintiffs, Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal, are agreeing to release their individual claims against Franco, without prejudice. If the settlement is approved, Tither-Kaplan would get $670,500 minus $223,500 that will go to lawyers; Gaal would get $223,500 minus $74,500 to the lawyers.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.