STOCKHOLM — The panel that awards the Nobel Prize in Literature acknowledged on Friday “unacceptable behavior in the form of unwanted intimacy” by a major cultural figure with close ties to the group, but said its members were not aware of any illegal conduct.

Engulfed in a scandal over allegations of sexual assault against Jean-Claude Arnault, the panel, the Swedish Academy, said that it was turning some of the results of an investigation over to law enforcement. It was the first collective statement made by the academy, whose ability to function has been badly shaken after five of its members resigned over the handling of the investigation.

Last November, in the midst of the #MeToo movement, the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported that 18 women had accused Mr. Arnault of sexual assault and harassment over more than two decades.

Mr. Arnault, a noted photographer, is married to a member of the academy, Katarina Frostenson — together, they own Forum, a club in Stockholm that is a cultural hub for Sweden — and is close to other members. He was accused of using his proximity to the academy, and his status as an influential cultural arbiter, to abuse women artists in properties owned by the academy in Stockholm and Paris.