'X-Men' Director Bryan Singer To Pay $150,000 To Settle Rape Allegation

"Bohemian Rhapsody" director Bryan Singer has agreed to pay $150,000 in order to settle rape allegations against him outside of court, reports Deadline. The settlement pertains to an incident that was said to have taken place in 2003 with a 17-year-old boy named Cesar Sanchez-Guzman.

In his 2017 complaint, Sanchez-Guzman stated that he was attending technology investor Lester Waters' party aboard a yacht when Singer, now 53, invited him into a private room and allegedly forced him to both perform sexual acts and then raped him, despite the teen's protests. The "X-Men: First Class" director has always denied these claims, saying that he did not know Sanchez-Guzman.

As reported by The Atlantic, Sanchez-Guzman recalls that after the incident, Singer said to him, "Nobody is going to believe you" and promised to assist him with breaking into the film industry.

Sanchez-Guzman filed for bankruptcy in 2014. However, in 2018, his lawsuit against the director was listed as a personal asset. A bankruptcy trustee came to a settlement agreement with Singer's attorney and requested approval by the court regarding the settlement. According to Deadline, once the agreement is approved by a Chapter 11 judge and paid "the sexual assault and battery and sexual exploitation of children action will be dismissed with prejudice."

Singer's attorney released a statement after the settlement was reached, which read, in part, "Mr. Singer has denied even knowing this individual, let alone allegedly having interacted with him more than 15 years ago. The decision to resolve the matter with a bankruptcy trustee was purely a business one, as litigation costs would well exceed the amount requested by the trustee..."

This is not the first time the director has been accused of sexual misconduct. In 1997, a lawsuit emerged alleging that Singer requested that underage extras remove their G-strings during a shower scene in "Apt Pupil," allegations which he has also consistently denied.