Paramount President Sued for $150 Million

Los Ángeles.- Jeff Shell, president of Paramount Skydance, faces a $150 million lawsuit from Las Vegas gambler R.J. Cipriani, who alleges that the executive breached a verbal agreement related to crisis communication services and the production of a television series. According to the Los Angeles Times, the 67-page lawsuit, filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges that Cipriani alerted Shell to press articles and offered him advice on handling potential media crises. In exchange, he claims that the executive verbally committed to help produce a television series titled 'Star Serenade', in which Cipriani and his wife were to be named executive co-producers, which ultimately did not happen. "This case arises from the oldest form of fraud: a powerful man took everything a less powerful man had to offer, promised to pay him back, lied to him when he asked about it, and then refused to compensate him at all," reads the lawsuit according to the media. We recommend reading: The document also indicates that Shell would have shared confidential information with Cipriani, including its alleged opinion that Paramount would be overpaying for Warner Bros. Discovery. Paramount Skydance agreed to buy the studio in a deal valued at $111 billion, surpassing Netflix with its $110 billion deal.

Unsuccessful Meeting Between Cipriani and Shell

Cipriani indicates having received information about a multi-million dollar deal of 7.7 billion dollars for the broadcasting rights of UFC fights, almost a month before the news was made public. The player threatened to sue Shell in the previous weeks, and finally fulfilled his warning by filing the lawsuit. The gambler claims that Shell was desperate to silence negative stories about him. According to the complaint, Cipriani and Shell met on February 2 in a lawyer's office to try to resolve the dispute, in which Shell stated that it would not compensate Cipriani or collaborate in the production of the series, and, according to the complaint, the president of Paramount offered him a personal loan of $150,000 to solve the problem.