Redstone’s Ex-Companion Sues His Daughter, Grandson

Manuela Herzer, Sumner Redstone

Sumner Redstone’s former companion has sued his daughter and grandson for more than $100 million, alleging they effectively ran a criminal enterprise to illegally spy on her and oust her from the media mogul’s life.

The Wall Street Journal reports the complaint was filed in federal court in California on Monday, claiming violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act—a law created to prosecute the mafia.

In the suit, Manuela Herzer claims that Shari Redstone and her son, Tyler Korff, conspired with Mr. Redstone’s nurses and staff members to eavesdrop on Ms. Herzer and Mr. Redstone’s communications with his attorneys, to break into her computer to plant documents and gather information, and to spy on her with security cameras in Mr. Redstone’s mansion, among other actions.

Shari Redstone

Ms. Redstone, along with the help of family and staff, is accused of forcing Ms. Herzer from Mr. Redstone’s life “as a direct means of gaining control of his estate plan and his media companies”—National Amusements, CBS Corp. and Viacom Inc., according to the complaint.

Mr. Redstone, 94, is the controlling shareholder of Viacom and CBS through his National Amusements holding company. Viacom and CBS declined to comment.

“Having gotten nowhere in her previous three lawsuits against Sumner, his family, and his nurses and household staff, Ms. Herzer has concocted a work of pure fiction designed for media spectacle,” Robert Klieger, an attorney for Ms. Redstone who works at Hueston Hennigan, said in a statement. “Shari unequivocally rejects the fantastical allegations dreamt up by the latest in Ms. Herzer’s revolving door of lawyers.”

Herzer, a onetime girlfriend of Mr. Redstone’s, lived with him in his Beverly Park mansion from 2013 until 2015, when both she and another former girlfriend, Sydney Holland, were forced out of the mansion. In her complaint Monday, Ms. Herzer accuses Ms. Redstone of conspiring to kick them out of her father’s house so that she could then begin to “puppet his wishes” and maneuver to take over his media empire.