Paramount President Jeff Shell has been accused of leaking confidential data about the company’s landmark $7.7 billion deal with the Ultimate Fighting Championship a month before it was announced in August 2025 in a whistleblower complaint.
The complaint, filed by documented whistleblower and high-profile gambler R.J. Cipriani, is being investigated by an outside law firm while the SEC is reviewing a related complaint.
In a statement, Shell’s attorney Patricia Glaser said the complaint was “riddled with clear errors of fact and law” and vowed that “we will strongly respond.”
Shell was hired as president of Paramount Skydance by owner David Ellison, resurrecting a media executive career that came to a sharp halt in 2023 when he was fired as NBCUniversal’s CEO over allegations of inappropriate conduct involving a CNBC correspondent. Shell went on to an interim position at private equity firm RedBird Capital Partners, which helped Skydance in its successful bid to acquire Paramount Global in 2025.
Paramount’s deal with UFC was a seismic one for both companies, as it brought an end to the mixed martial arts promotion’s pay-per-view model. Starting with UFC 324 this past month, all of the promotion’s top events — now known as “numbered events” instead of PPVs — would be broadcast on Paramount+ with select major events also being aired on CBS.
Upon announcement of the deal, which will last through 2032, stock for UFC’s parent company, TKO Group Holdings, jumped 10% in August 2025. Currently, TKO’s stock stands at $209 per share, a 34% increase from a year ago.
The whistleblower claim also comes as Paramount has made headway in its latest attempt to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, providing a new offer of $31 per share to acquire the company along with a $7 billion regulatory termination should regulators block the deal from being completed. WBD previously accepted a bid from Netflix of $27.75/share, for a total acquisition price of $82.7 billion.
