(Bloomberg) — A California man was arrested and charged with faking and destroying evidence and lying in his $50 million lawsuit that accused late Paramount Pictures Corp. Chief Executive Officer Brad Grey and former MTV head Brian Graden of sexual assault.
Rovier Carrington, 32, was arrested Tuesday in Los Angeles and charged in a criminal complaint with one count of perjury, Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement Wednesday. If convicted, he faces a maximum of five years in prison.
Carrington filed the suit in New York in 2018, claiming the two men had sexually exploited and then defrauded him by deciding not to produce his reality television show. The suit was thrown out when a judge determined Carrington had destroyed evidence and faked a set of 10 email chains he used to support his claims. The judge ordered him to pay more than $600,000 in attorney fees and costs to the defendants.
In one of the phony email chains, Carrington allegedly told a friend he was being threatened by one of the men while the other “thinks I’m supposed to constantly sleep with him for my projects.” He claims he “was promised my series and reality show would make the studio a lot of money.”
Carrington submitted a statement falsely swearing that the emails were genuine, according to the charge against him.
A lawyer for Carrington didn’t immediately return phone and email messages seeking comment. Lawyers for Graden and for Grey’s estate declined comment.
The case is U.S. v. Carrington, 12-mag-08604, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
(Updates with attorney fees in third paragraph.)
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