CBS CBS Corp

By Keach Hagey 

One of Sumner Redstone's ex-girlfriends threatened to name other women to whom he gave tens of millions of dollars and to potentially call executives including CBS Corp. Chief Executive Leslie Moonves as witnesses in support of her claim that the media mogul had the mental capacity to give her major gifts.

In documents filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, Sydney Holland formally responded to the lawsuit against her and another former companion of Mr. Redstone's, Manuela Herzer, that Mr. Redstone's legal team filed in October, looking to reclaim the more than $150 million that the women received from the 93-year-old billionaire.

Ms. Holland, 44 years old, who dated Mr. Redstone for five years ending last year, also filed a cross-complaint seeking damages -- including monthly payments -- from Mr. Redstone for allegedly breaking his promise to take care of her and her adopted daughter for the rest of their lives.

Mr. Redstone controls Viacom Inc. and CBS through a roughly 80% voting stake in each. He has been at the center of a series of legal battles over the past year around questions of his mental capacity, concerning his ability to make personal and health-care decisions as well as business decisions.

In her cross-complaint, Ms. Holland argues that Mr. Redstone, in his role at the time as executive chairman of CBS and Viacom, was actively commenting on the running of the companies in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission at the same time that he gave a "large cash gift" to Ms. Holland in May 2014. He was also still receiving significant compensation from the media companies at that time.

In Mr. Redstone's elder abuse suit against Ms. Holland and Ms. Herzer, his legal team alleges that they "commandeered" his life beginning in 2010 and coaxed him into liquidating almost his entire accessible fortune to bequeath to the women.

Ms. Herzer's lawyer, Ronald Richards, has said that the elder-abuse suit from Mr. Redstone has "no merit whatsoever."

Ms. Holland further alleges that she and Ms. Herzer were far from the only women to whom Mr. Redstone gave millions. The women included an "aspiring reality show producer" who received approximately $21 million, a "flight attendant on the CBS corporate jet" who got $18 million and her sister, with whom Mr. Redstone also became involved, who got $6 million. Another half dozen other women also received money while Ms. Holland was residing with Mr. Redstone, she alleges.

"Sydney may be forced to disclose their identities and call Redstone's celebrity friends and Viacom and CBS executives as witnesses," Ms. Holland's lawyers, Mark Holscher and Sierra Elizabeth of Kirkland & Ellis LLP, wrote in the cross-complaint. They also wrote that Mr. Moonves "knew about Redstone's largest monetary gift to Sydney, on May 20, 2014."

Mr. Moonves declined to comment.

"Ms. Holland's cross-complaint is a work of fiction punctuated by not-so-subtle threats of extortion and an overwhelming stench of greed," Mr. Redstone's legal team said in a statement. "The critical witnesses will not be Mr. Redstone's 'celebrity friends' but instead the nurses and household staff members who, unlike Ms. Holland, were by his side day and night. It will be for the jury to weigh the contemporaneous notes and trial testimony of those disinterested witnesses against Ms. Holland's narcissistic false narrative. In the end, we are confident that justice will be done."

Mr. Richards, who is representing Ms. Herzer in both the California case against the two women and a separate New York case seeking to challenge Mr. Redstone's gifting her of an apartment at the Carlyle Hotel, has sought to depose Mr. Redstone in both cases.

However, Mr. Redstone's lawyers have said he cannot be deposed for medical reasons.

"It's very easy to sue somebody and then take the position that you don't have to appear for your deposition," Mr. Richards said. "At the end of the day, that's not going to work out very well in court."

Joe Flint contributed to this article.

Write to Keach Hagey at keach.hagey@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 12, 2016 18:41 ET (23:41 GMT)

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