Lloyd Mayer, a professor of nonprofit law at the University of Notre Dame, said the agreement appeared to allow charitable contributions to serve the private benefit of Mr. Weinstein and the other commercial investors.

Jason Lilien, Mr. Weinstein’s lawyer, said it did not matter if the other “Finding Neverland” investors “incidentally benefited” from the charitable contributions because the primary purpose was to put on a production for the public’s benefit. The theater declined to comment.

Mr. Lilien said Mr. Weinstein told Mr. Cole that the money raised through the auction would serve a “Finding Neverland” business agreement. Orin Snyder, a lawyer with Gibson, Dunn & Cutcher, said in a statement that “during our inquiry, Harvey Weinstein disclosed and we confirmed that the contribution was part of his company’s ‘Finding Neverland’ agreement with A.R.T.,” referring to the theater.

The auction catalog for the amfAR fund-raising gala disclosed that some of the money raised from the sitting with the fashion photographer would go to the theater, but did not note that for the Hollywood experience package arranged by Mr. Weinstein. Tom Ajamie, the first lawyer hired by the charity to review the $600,000 transaction, concluded that failure to disclose was “fraud on the bidders” by amfAR, according to people who reviewed the report. Mr. Weinstein’s attorneys said it was a clerical mistake by amfAR.

Mr. Weinstein said that when arranging the charitable contributions that flowed to the theater he told some donors that the funds were to support the “Finding Neverland” production. But, he said, it wasn’t his responsibility to further disclose that the money would be used to reimburse him and the other investors or otherwise cover their business obligations. If people wanted to learn more, he said, they could have done internet research.

“Today, if you want to know something, it’s easy,” he said. “Google ‘A.R.T.,’ whatever. You don’t want to make a donation to that, don’t. Whatever. These people aren’t forced to write a check to A.R.T. They can Google it, they can call it, they can speak to it, people will answer them.”

After Gibson, Dunn & Cutcher concluded its investigation, Mr. Weinstein asked amfAR board members and executive staff to sign pledges that there was no evidence of wrongdoing and that they would not probe further. In exchange, he said that he “will not at any time in the future engage in wrongful conduct involving amfAR.”