Paramount's Jeff Shell strikes back against Vegas gambler

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Paramount President Jeff Shell has fired back in his ugly feud with a Las Vegas gambler and FBI informant, contending that Robert “R.J.” Cipriani has fictionalized the two men’s dealings, then spread “false and salacious lies to extract a massive payday.”Shell filed a lawsuit one week after the high-roller had sued Shell in Los Angeles County Superior Court.Cipriani’s suit had alleged fraud and breach of an oral contract tied to his claims that Shell failed to deliver on a verbal pledge to help him develop an English-language version of a Spanish music show that streams on Roku TV.

Cipriani has been seeking $150 million in damages.However, Shell’s lawsuit, filed Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges he was the victim of extortion and defamation.Hollywood Inc.

Surreptitious dealings with a high-stakes Vegas gambler could imperil Jeff Shell’s role in Paramount Skydance as it looks to merge with Warner Bros.Discovery.“R.J.

Cipriani did not come to Court to enforce some purported oral agreement.He came to complete a shakedown,” according to Shell’s counter-claim lawsuit.

“Cipriani’s playbook works like this: use a trusted mutual connection to cozy up to a high-profile target; leech to the fringes of the target’s world while manufacturing the illusion of closeness; falsely claim you have been helping the target from behind the scenes.”Shell contends that Cipriani demanded compensation for his unsolicited efforts, then sought to “weaponize that fiction,” followed by a threat of public exposure to extract an alleged payday.The move comes as Shell faces scrutiny after his Paramount bosses hired a law firm to investigate his surreptitious dealings with Cipriani, a self-styled “fixer.” Investigators have been reviewing whether Shell leaked sensitive corporate secrets during his association with Cipriani, who volunteered to be Shell’s “c...