The highly-publicized assisted suicide of Catherine Kassenoff, initially brought to national attention by the Frank Report, has spiraled into a $150 million legal battle.
Catherine Kassenoff attributed her suicide to an arduous divorce and custody struggle with her husband Allan Kassenoff in Westchester County Family Court.
On September 5, Allan Kassenoff, on behalf of himself, and his three minor children, and his divorce lawyer, Constantine Gus Dimpolous, filed a federal lawsuit against TikTok influencer Robert Harvey, alleging defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, tortious interference with business relationships, cyberstalking, and harassment.
Today, Kassenoff amended the lawsuit. Dimopoulos is no longer a plaintiff, and in a statement he said he voluntarily withdrew his name.
The lawsuit contends Harvey launched a targeted and malicious social media campaign against Kassenoff starting May 31, 2023 – four days after his wife’s death.
With a TikTok following of over 3 million, Harvey allegedly posted misleading videos portraying Kassenoff as an abusive husband and father. Kassenoff asserts these falsehoods led to his ousting from Greenberg Traurig, where he earned around $1 million per year.
Anti-SLAPP Defense
Harvey’s attorney Jonathan Davidoff plans to seek a dismissal based on the lawsuit being an illegal SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) suit. He argues the lawsuit is a frivolous legal action intended to stifle freedom of speech.
Dimopoulus formerly represented Davidoff’s wife in a divorce that ended in 2022.
Here is Constantine Gus Dimopoulus’ Statement
I have proudly represented Allan Kassenoff in his divorce action since 2019. Sadly, in May 2023, his spouse took her own life, just weeks before the final trial, in an extremely public social media campaign that was fueled by a false narrative.
On May 31, 2023, a TikTok personality by the name of Robert Harvey began uploading videos depicting Allan and his children and even instructed his 3,000,000+ followers to attack Allan’s law firm and its clients, which resulted in Allan losing his position as a shareholder in a multi-national law firm, and which irreparably harmed Allan’s three young children.
On September 5, 2023, Allan and I filed a lawsuit against Mr. Harvey in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Florida. The lawsuit alleges that Mr. Harvey published defamatory, false, and misleading content about Mr. Kassenoff and that he intentionally inflicted emotional distress upon Allan and his three daughters. The lawsuit further alleges a cause of action for tortious interference with a business relationship and seeks an injunction against Mr. Harvey under Florida’s cyberstalking statute. As a sign of solidarity, I decided to join in the lawsuit solely to obtain an injunction restraining Mr. Harvey from posting additional videos. However, I never sought monetary damages or sought to financially benefit in any way from the lawsuit.
Mr. Harvey decided to hire a lawyer by the name of Jonathan Davidoff to represent him in this lawsuit. When Mr. Davidoff went through his own divorce, I represented his wife in that contentious matter that resulted in a prolonged trial. That case ended in 2022, and since then, Mr. Davidoff has filed two lawsuits against me, one of which has already been dismissed.
It is my opinion that Mr. Harvey’s decision to engage Mr. Davidoff is fueled by the latter’s own grievances against me. Accordingly, and because my continued involvement in this lawsuit will only serve as a distraction from Allan’s and his children’s meritorious claims, I have elected to voluntarily withdraw from the lawsuit. This way, the focus of the case can be where it belongs, on Allan and his children – and the significant harm that Mr. Harvey caused them. Although I will no longer be seeking an injunction against Mr. Harvey in the current action, I reserve the right to pursue one in the future.
I will continue to support and stand by Allan in his efforts for justice.
I suspect Allan will withdraw his suit as well. If he’s smart, he will. If he’s as disturbed and litigious and vindictive as Catherine claimed, he will continue. Which is likely I suppose from what I’ve seen. He got his chance to publish a one sided narrative slamming his wife in his claim. He is not going to make money off Harvey.
Allan is not going to withdraw (or settle). Harvey has made himself a proxy for his dead wife and he can’t let go. There is a reason they were in a 5yr legal battle (now with literal dead bodies). This was clearly a marriage of vindictive, litigious, self-centered narcissists. Neither Allan or Catherine are/were capable of stepping outside themselves and seeing what is actually best for the long term interests of their kids (or ultimately themselves).
Most likely outcome here is Allan keeps banging his head against this wall until he dies, is bankrupt or maybe (though not likely)his family has a serious intervention.
And yet Catherine’s suicide manifesto wasn’t one sided?! Over 3000 filings in this case and she only chose 50. She was so detached from reality she didn’t even realize some of them don’t make her look very good. How was Allan litigious?! Did he sue everyone in the court who didn’t agree with him? Did he act out and bad mouth judge Capeci as she forced him to give Catherine close to $1M? Did he sue Catherine multiple times like she sued him? Did he sue the children’s therapists? The answer is no
Allan has been consistently silent but when someone intentionally harms u and ur children u go after them. Robbie defamed him. He didn’t seek the truth he didn’t simply post videos. He gave a false narrative. I hope you’re not a lawyer bc the law is on Allan’s side. And so r his children as he protected them from their abusive mother and he will continue to protect them from the Robbie Harvey mob.
I really don’t think you have to be disturbed and vindictive to sue someone for unfairly causing you to lose your job.
Lol of course. Gus doesn’t want to submit to discovery which he would be if he continued.
He says Allan lost his position as a shareholder, is that true?
When ur forced to resign u lose ur position as a shareholder. Great job people who care about the kids getting Allan fired. A lot of good it did for the children. The sole provider is out of a job. U must be proud
At Court News … you probably never read the complaint & if you did , you had/have no clue interpreting the law !!
We all read the complaint and it is meritless against Harvey but It does have a lot of merit in proving that Allan is still not over his divorce.
Which part is exactly meritless
SF … I read the complaint. What’s your point? Allan has an uphill battle here. Videos are videos. Catherine published everything before Harvey did
You know you’ve entered the litigation twilight zone when your lawsuit is even too wacky for a divorce lawyer to go along with
Who said he wasn’t going along with it? He supports Allan and reserves the right in the future to sue. But bc Robbie engaged Davidoff who has no experience and only a vendetta against Gus in this field he felt he should withdraw at this time to bring the attention to real victims, the kassenoff family. I commend Gus for recognizing that his claim was a very small part in a very big lawsuit and it shouldn’t overshadow the real victims.
This suit is nothing more than saber rattling and a distraction from the very questionable actions of these attorneys and the dead wife.
I agree we should question the actions of the dead wife.
Of course he’s a dirty dog. It would uncover too much.
Anon 5pm. Exactly. He doesn’t want to be subject to discovery.
U don’t think Gus as a lawyer knew that he would be subject to discovery? U think he still can’t be deposed?!
Seriously u people have no knowledge of basic law
Meritless lawsuits
Definitely not. Seems Gus doesn’t want this to become the Davidoff/Gus war and wants the attention to be on the rightful victims, the Kassenoff family. Try pretending like u care about the kids
the stereotypical magnanimous, selfless high powered NY divorce attorney. Lol
Right like anyone alive cared/cares about the kids. If they did, those children would have spent 50% of their time with their mother while she was living . Why did Catherine need to be a saint to have any custody and Allan can be as disgusting a little troll and have sole? That’s the issue. They abused those children the minute they kept them legally kidnapped from their own mother for years
Maybe bc there r over 3000 filings and u people weren’t privy to it all bc the courts were trying to protect the kids. A lot more than Catherine was willing to do. She chose to violate their privacy by disclosing their medical records
https://nypost.com/2023/09/23/veronica-youngbloods-ex-says-she-used-slain-daughters-as-leverage/?utm_campaign=iphone_nyp&utm_source=pasteboard_app
Maybe Allan didn’t want his kids to be this headline. Ever think about that