By Joe Flint
In August 2024, media executive Jeff Shell made his way to his lawyer's office in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Century City to meet someone he had been told was behind nasty rumors about him.
Shell had spent the past year patching up his marriage and career, having stepped down as NBCUniversal's chief executive after a CNBC anchor accused him of sexual harassment. He acknowledged an "inappropriate relationship" with a subordinate. He was preparing to start as president of Paramount, and the last thing he needed was another scandal.
So he and lawyer Patricia Glaser sat down with Robert James "R.J." Cipriani, a self-professed fixer, whistleblower and professional gambler who had been spreading innuendo about Shell on social media, according to court filings in a continuing legal dispute between the men. The previous month on X, where he posts as Robin Hood 702, Cipriani had suggested that more women were "coming out of the woodwork to allege sexual misbehavior" by Shell.
Glaser, one of the entertainment industry's top lawyers, had a long relationship with Shell and knew Cipriani through work she had done for him and his wife, actress Greice Santo. She hoped that if the two met, Cipriani would drop his campaign against Shell.
What happened at that meeting and afterward is now the subject of an ugly legal battle between the two that has also ensnared Paramount's controlling owners, David Ellison and his father, Larry Ellison, the billionaire Oracle co-founder. Even President Trump, who is friendly with the Ellisons, has made an appearance in one of Cipriani's legal filings.
The legal entanglement, now the talk of Hollywood executive circles, comes at an awkward time for Paramount, which needs regulatory approval for a hard-fought $81 billion deal to acquire rival Warner Bros. Discovery.
Earlier this month, Cipriani sued Shell for breach of verbal contract and fraud, alleging that Shell hadn't paid for services that were comparable to those provided by a "crisis communications" firm hired to stamp out negative stories and redirect press attention.
Cipriani said Shell reneged on a purported promise to make "Star Serenade," an English-language version of "Serenata De Las Estrellas," a Spanish-language music reality series created by Cipriani and his wife that airs on the Roku Channel. Cipriani intended it to pay tribute to his mother, Regina.
Additionally, Cipriani accused Shell of disclosing material nonpublic information in text communications about Paramount's business dealings, including a then-pending $7.7 billion deal to air fights from the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a deal that was completed in August 2025.
The suit said Cipriani informed the Securities and Exchange Commission of his allegations. An SEC spokesman declined to comment.
Shell filed a counterclaim against Cipriani this week accusing him of extortion and defamation. He said there was no business relationship between them and that the allegations, including that he revealed confidential information, were false. While Shell acknowledges texting with Cipriani, his filing describes the messages in the suit as "fabrications." Shell said in his filing that he never agreed to or offered to help Cipriani make any TV show.
"Cipriani did not come to Court to enforce some purported oral agreement. He came to complete a shakedown," Shell said in his counterclaim.
A subsequent suit from Cipriani included claims against Paramount and many of its board members. Paramount called the allegations "frivolous " and "entirely without merit."
Paramount launched its own investigation into whether Shell had disclosed confidential company information, people familiar with the matter said.
Cipriani's initial suit against Shell came after a second meeting at Glaser's office on Feb. 2. During that encounter, Shell told Cipriani that he owed him nothing, according to Shell's counterclaim.
Cipriani's lawsuit includes exhibits of purported messages via WhatsApp between him and Shell discussing the UFC deal, allegedly sent before the agreement's announcement. Also included are messages that Cipriani's suit alleges show he was working on behalf of Shell. In one, Cipriani takes credit for influencing an article about a business dispute involving Paramount and streaming rights for the animated hit "South Park."
In his subsequent suit against Paramount, the Ellisons and board members, Cipriani alleged that at a meeting last month, Shell relayed details of a conversation between Larry Ellison and Trump about Paramount's bidding war for Warner Bros. Discovery against Netflix. Cipriani alleged that Shell told him Trump had told the elder Ellison that he would get Warner, despite the company's preference to sell to Netflix.
"The accusations of a professional gambler does not change the fact that the Trump administration, as the President has consistently made clear, remained neutral throughout the Warner Brothers bidding process," White House spokesman Kush Desai wrote in an email.
Shell and Cipriani are unlikely associates.
Shell, 60 years old, has a master's of business administration from Harvard and has held senior roles at Disney and Fox. President Barack Obama selected Shell to chair the Broadcasting Board of Governors, now the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees Voice of America. He can often be found at Nate & Al's, the Beverly Hills deli he has a stake in.
Cipriani, 64, grew up in a working-class Philadelphia neighborhood. He began gambling at a young age in Atlantic City, N.J., and later in Las Vegas, where he is a well-known high roller and agitator on the Strip. He has blasted casino executives on X for alleged wrongdoings. In a court filing in a separate case, Cipriani said he "informed" the investigations into the MGM Grand and assisted in criminal and regulatory investigations of Resorts World.
Beyond Las Vegas, Cipriani has been credited with tipping off the Federal Bureau of Investigation about Owen Hanson, a former University of Southern California football player who became a global drug kingpin. Cipriani's nickname among the feds was "Jackpot." He appeared in the Amazon documentary "Cocaine Quarterback: Signal-Caller for the Cartel," sporting his trademark baseball cap and sunglasses.
Cipriani has had his own brushes with the law, including pleading guilty to insurance fraud in 2006. He said the charge stemmed from a family feud after his mother died, and he took a plea deal on the advice of his lawyer. In 2021, Cipriani was arrested and charged with several felonies for taking a phone away from another gambler at Resorts World Las Vegas. Cipriani says the charges were part of a retaliation scheme that involved the casino and local law enforcement and he took the phone away from someone filming him. Cipriani ultimately only pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct.
At one point, Paramount's Shell spoke to a former colleague familiar with Cipriani, according to his suit.
The colleague told Shell to be wary. Cipriani could "make lots of trouble."
Write to Joe Flint at Joe.Flint@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 19, 2026 22:00 ET (02:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
