Paramount president hit with $150M lawsuit claiming he leaked insider information to professional gambler... days after company signed deal to buy Warner Bros
Paramount president Jeff Shell was hit Monday with a $150million lawsuit claiming he violated federal regulations by leaking insider information to a professional gambler.RJ Cipriani, a former FBI informant and Vegas high roller, says he helped smooth over embarrassing news stories about Shell’s alleged sexual misconduct and 2023 firing from NBCUniversal, as an unpaid ‘crisis communications’ consultant, in a new legal complaint.Cipriani’s 67-page Los Angeles complaint claimed Shell reneged on a promise to create an English-language version of his TV show Star Serenade on Paramount in return.The lawsuit is explosively timed, coming days after Paramount signed a $110billion deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), beating out competitor Netflix – and it alleges Shell called WBD CEO a ‘suck-up’ and ‘incompetent’ behind his back.Attached to the complaint are several text message screenshots, allegedly showing Shell sharing inside information on huge Paramount deals before they were inked, which Cipriani claimed was a ‘violation of federal securities law’.The lawsuit claims Shell also shared secret details of the then-undecided deal between Paramount and WBD.‘During the course of their relationship, Shell disclosed to Plaintiff material non-public information concerning a pending $7 billion corporate transaction and, separately, the details of a pending approximately $110 billion media acquisition, in violation of SEC Regulation FD, which Plaintiff has reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission as a registered whistleblower,’ Cipriani’s complaint said.Cipriani, 64, has a history of passing on information to the feds. Jeff Shell, the president of Paramount, was hit with a $150million lawsuit on Monday alleging that he leaked insider knowledge to a professional gambler The lawsuit was brought forward by RJ Cipriani, a former FBI informant and Vegas high roller, who claimed he worked as an unpaid ‘crisis communications’ consultant for ShellHe was a confidential informant for the FBI on high-profile cases including an illegal sports betting scheme by the interpreter for LA Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani and the bust of a drug trafficking, money laundering and illegal sports betting ring run by ‘cocaine quarterback’ Owen Hanson.The $7billion deal referred to in his new lawsuit was Paramount’s purchase of the rights to air Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) fights, inked in August last year.‘We are buying ALL of the UFC rights for the next 7 years for Paramount. Netflix thought they had it. $7 billion +,’ Shell allegedly texted Cipriani according to the screenshot in the lawsuit.‘Very hush hush until we sign.’Cipriani claimed Shell credited him with helping Paramount save $1.5billion in a dispute over the rights to stream hit cartoon South Park.In a June 2025 text message allegedly from Shell to Cipriani, the pro-gambler told the Paramount boss he placed an article favorable to Paramount in the Hollywood Reporter, and Shell responded: ‘I love you !!!!’The article referenced the South park creators’ attorney Kevin Morris, and his ‘sugar brother’ relationship bankrolling Hunter Biden’s multi-million-dollar tax debt, prompting Shell to add ‘The hunter Biden thing is awesome. Thank you Rj,’ in the alleged texts attached to the complaint.Shell’s attorney, Patricia Glaser, previously told the LA Times that she had reviewed a draft of Cipriani’s complaint, and said the allegations were without merit. 'We were presented with a draft complaint riddled with clear errors of fact and law and the threat that it would be filed, but if he makes the mistake of going ahead with it, we will strongly respond,' she said. Shell, Glaser and Paramount did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Join the debateDo YOU think insider trading still runs rampant in corporate America? Screenshots of texts between Shell and Cipriani were in the lawsuit filing. This one shows the Paramount president allegedly leaking information about purchasing the rights to UFC This screenshot from the complaint shows shows Cipriani allegedly helping Shell save Paramount $1.5billion in a dispute over the rights to stream the hit cartoon South Park This screenshot from the complaint shows Cipriani telling Shell he got him removed from a story in the Hollywood ReporterMedia giant NBCUniversal fired Shell as CEO in April 2023 after CNBC anchor Hadley Gamble accused him of sexual harassment. Shell said he was ‘truly sorry’ for the ‘inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company’ in a statement at the time.Cipriani claimed in the complaint he got involved with Shell in 2024, after the Paramount boss asked him to stop digging up dirt around his firing and instead help him improve his public relations.The lawsuit says Cipriani worked for free, counting on Shell’s alleged promise to make an English-language version of his Spanish-language show ‘Serenata De Las Estrellas’, streaming on Roku, in which fans of star singers are surprise-serenaded by their idol.‘A powerful man took everything a less powerful man had to offer, promised to repay him, lied to him when he asked about it, and then refused to compensate him at all,’ the lawsuit claimed.‘Shell’s own attorney recognized the merit of Plaintiff’s claims so clearly that the attorney offered to pay $150,000 from that attorney’s own personal funds rather than see the matter proceed to litigation.’The lawsuit recounted one alleged February 2, 2026 meeting between Shell and Cipriani that has the potential to embarrass the Paramount boss who just steered the company to buy WBD.‘Shell also disclosed to Plaintiff his disdain for David Zaslav, the Chief Executive Officer of Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc., and stated that Paramount’s senior leadership would not be retaining Zaslav in any post- merger capacity because they considered him to be incompetent and also to be a “suck-up,” overly enamored of Hollywood celebrities,’ the lawsuit said.Cipriani also claimed Shell told him that Paramount was ‘overpaying’ for WBD. The lawsuit claims that Shell shared disdain for the pictured CEO of Warner Brothers Discovery, David Zaslav‘We’re paying way too much for Warner Bros. If we could just wait another year, we could get it a whole lot cheaper,’ the pro-gambler claimed the Paramount president told him.Cipriani is now demanding $150million from Shell in the lawsuit.The pro-gambler told the Daily Mail that any payout from the lawsuit ‘will be used to help the less fortunate people around the globe’.Cipriani says he created the show 'Serenata De Las Estrellas’ in memory of his mother, Regina.'We cannot wait to have our day in court,’ Cipriani’s attorney Steven Aaronoff told the Daily Mail. 'What Jeff Shell has done to my client and to the legacy of my client's mother, Regina, cannot be forgiven. We will go forth.'
