Jeff Shell is stepping down as president of Paramount Skydance Corp. following a contentious lawsuit by a high-stakes gambler who accused him of leaking inside information.
Shell, who served as the No. 2 executive under Chief Executive Officer David Ellison, had been instrumental in finalizing Paramount’s merger with Skydance Media last year. The company agreed to pay $110 billion for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. in February.
But Shell became the subject of a scandal in recent weeks after R.J. Cipriani sued him for $150 million over allegations that the executive failed to deliver on a promise to develop a TV show honoring his late mother in exchange for public-relations services.
The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, also claims that Shell provided him with material nonpublic information about Paramount’s business, including that it was overpaying for Warner Bros. and its negotiations for a $7.7 billion TV contract the company signed with Ultimate Fighting Championship in August.
Paramount said the board conducted “a complete and thorough review” of the allegations that Shell violated securities disclosure rules and said the facts demonstrated that they “do not establish a securities law violation.” Paramount said Shell has “elected to transition from his positions” as president and a member of the board to focus on this lawsuit.
Shell has denied having any kind of business agreement with Cipriani and called the litigation a “shakedown.” A lawyer representing Cipriani said Paramount has “tacitly acknowledged Jeff Shell’s wrongdoing” by letting him go.
The departure marks the second time in three years that Shell has left his position at a company in a cloud of controversy. Ellison brought on Shell less than two years after he had been forced out of his job leading Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal business after acknowledging he’d had an inappropriate relationship with a reporter in the news division. He took some time off and quickly found himself back in the executive suite.
After leaving Comcast, Shell served as an executive at RedBird Capital Partners, which provided financial backing in both the Paramount-Skydance merger and Paramount’s Warner Bros. bid.
Topics Lawsuits
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