A granddaughter of the late media magnate Sumner Redstone is countersuing a man who filed a civil action against her alleging she falsely accused him of stealing money from her and pointing a gun at her head.
Keryn Redstone’s countersuit, brought Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges Scott Michael Nathan indeed threatened her with a firearm after she ordered him out of her home on Sept. 30, 2021. Redstone said she went to another room and called police after Nathan calmed down.
Nathan’s original lawsuit was filed last Aug. 24 and the most recently amended version alleges defamation, breach of oral contract, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress and intentional interference with contractual relations. Nathan alleges Redstone defamed him in part by falsely telling adult film actor Danny Mountain that Nathan threatened Redstone with a gun.
Nathan works as an estate manager and personal assistant who provides services to clients who need help managing their lives. He and Redstone met in 2017 and in August of that year, she called saying she wanted to hire him as her estate manager and personal assistant to manage her life, offering a $50,000 bonus upon starting work, the amended suit states.
Nathan accepted.
“His job was, in summary, to manage her otherwise chaotic life,” the amended suit states. Redstone denies that she hired him for any position.
Redstone “appears to have severe mental health and substance abuse problems and is so dysfunctional that she cannot manage her domestic affairs,” according to the amended suit, which further alleges that Nathan’s job included cooking meals, ordering groceries, shopping for her and managing her home.
Redstone paid Nathan and reimbursed him for his expenses via PayPal, but he was never given the promised bonus, the amended suit states.
After Nathan helped Redstone move into a new home in Brentwood in 2021, she asked him to work for her on a full-time basis and move into her residence, the suit states. She once offered him $24,000 if he left his apartment for her residence, but she reneged, the amended suit alleges.
Nathan stopped working for Redstone on Oct. 1, 2021, prompting her to start “a vendetta of threats, lies and intimidation” against the plaintiff, including telling several acquaintances that he had committed various crimes of theft or violence against her and that she intended to have him “killed or seriously injured,” the amended suit states.
Redstone was aware that the people to whom she spoke knew Nathan and would feel obligated to tell him what she had said, causing him to become “terrified and in fear for his life and personal safety because he believed that Redstone was so angry, wealthy and deranged that she was capable of paying a criminal to have him killed or badly beaten up,” according to the amended suit.
Nathan alleges that Redstone contacted PayPal and complained that Nathan had stolen money from her, causing him to have a deficit of more than $50,000 in his account and damaging his credit. Nathan also is seeking nearly $24,000 in attorneys’ fees from Redstone for bringing what his lawyers maintain was a frivolous anti-SLAPP motion that was denied by a judge.
In her countersuit, Redstone says that Nathan is a former friend who she asked to stay temporarily with her at her new home because she felt uncomfortable being there alone.
“After a few days of residence, (Nathan) became aggressive and began to threaten (Redstone) making demands for funds and threatening to harm (Redstone’s) pets if he was not paid,” the counter suit states.
Redstone’s countersuit also maintains that Nathan indeed used her phone without permission to transfer funds from her PayPal and other accounts to himself. Redstone’s countersuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
Redstone’s late grandfather, a billionaire and former Viacom chairman, died in Los Angeles in August 2020 at age 97.