Attorneys for Jeff Shell have responded to claims made by R.J. Cipriani, accusing the Las Vegas gambler and whistleblower of defamation and extortion in a new countersuit on Monday.
The move comes after Cipriani sued the Paramount Skydance president for $150 million over allegedly failing to pay for 18 months of crisis communications services. Cipriani also accused Shell of disclosing material, non-public information about Paramount’s $7.7 billion UFC media rights deal and plans to submit a sweetened offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, which his lawyers say is an “utterly false tale.”
The cross-complaint, which was filed in the Superior Court of Los Angeles, claims that Cipriani used their mutual lawyer Patricia Glaser to cozy up to Shell, falsely claimed that he was helping him and then extorted the executive in an attempt to extract a massive payday.
“He thought he could manipulate Shell, the President of Paramount Skydance
Corporation, into paying millions in hush money to keep Cipriani from sabotaging
Shell’s reputation. He placed a high-stakes bet that, if he concocted an utterly false tale that Shell had disclosed confidential details about Paramount’s business, Shell would pay Cipriani a ransom to keep him from going public with his heinous lies,” the complaint states. “But Shell called his bluff: Shell had disclosed no such information, and he refused to pay a dime. Under black-letter California law, Cipriani’s use of threats to extract money was extortion. And...
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