FR is publishing a series on Kassenoff v. Harvey, a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida.
The following is the third in our series.
Allan A. Kassenoff, for himself and on behalf of his children, ages 14, 12, and 10, and his attorney Constantine ‘Gus’ Dimopoulos, are suing social media influencer Robert Harvey for $150 million for claims of defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, cyberstalking and tortious interference with a business relationship.
The lawsuit alleges Harvey, who has more than $3.1 million followers on TikTok, published a series of videos falsely accusing Kassenoff of being an abusive father and spouse, which allegedly led to Kassenoff losing his reported $1 million per year job as a lawyer at Greenberg Traurig and his children suffering emotional distress.
His lawyer, Dimopoulus, also claims Harvey’s videos caused harm to his legal practice.
Robbie Harvey discusses Gus Dimopoulos’ role in a TikTok video
Harvey’s lawyer, Jonathan Davidoff, responded, calling the lawsuit a SLAPP suit intended to intimidate or silence Harvey by burdening them with the costs and stress of a legal defense without merit to the actual claims.
Davidoff plans to bring an anti-SLAPP motion to persuade the judge to dismiss the lawsuit as frivolous or meritless.
Allan Kassenoff Tells His Version of the Marriage
At the center of the Kassenoff lawsuit is the backstory of Allan’s marriage to his late wife, Catherine Kassenoff, whom he married in 2006.
On May 27, 2023, Catherine announced on Facebook that she was taking her life that day at an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland.
In her farewell post, as she had many times before, Catherine described her marriage to Kassenoff, portraying him as an abusive husband and father and master manipulation of the legal system to terminate her relationship with her children.
Family Court awarded Allan custody, accusing Catherine of alienating the children from Allan and terminating her parental rights.
Catherine claimed Allan was the true alienator.
In the lawsuit against Harvey, Allan gives his version of events, painting his wife as a scheming, unstable, deceptive, and vengeful woman.
A young Allan and Catherine Kassenoff
Allan Kassenoff’s version of their marriage
It began on November 13, 2006, and ended with her death on May 27, 2023, after four years of a contentious divorce battle in Westchester County, NY, which still had not resulted in a final divorce decree.
Allan says Catherine converted to Judaism before marriage and agreed to raise their children as Jewish.
After getting married, Ms. Kassenoff started in vitro fertilization (IVF) without trying to conceive naturally. In 2008, she was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer. She went into remission.
In 2009, after several failed IVF attempts, the Kassenoffs decided to adopt. While in the process of adopting, Allan said he found out why Catherine believed she had difficulty conceiving.
Years before, Catherine got an abortion after getting pregnant with he ex-boyfriend. The abortion, Catherine said, led to problems getting pregnant (after marrying Kassenoff), which led to her having to undergo IVF, which led to her first bout with cancer.
Allan claimed Catherine blamed her ex-boyfriend and wanted revenge because he was going forward with his seemingly happy life after he had caused her so much suffering.
She wanted to make him “pay,” Allan said.
In early 2009, Catherine planned a “sting” operation where she would go to a hotel room with her ex-boyfriend, videotape it, and send the recording to the ex-boyfriend’s wife to destroy him.
On February 11, 2009, Catherine’s friend, attorney Wayne Baker (who is also the executor of her estates), emailed Allan detailing Catherine’s “plan” and her alleged justification for it, noting that he was “impressed that [Allan has] been going along with all of this.”
Allan said he told Catherine her “plan” was insane and told Baker he was not “going along with” it.
According to Allan, Catherine later went ahead with her “sting.”
Allan claimed he found a DVD showing Catherine meeting her ex-boyfriend and entering a hotel. Later, through Allan spying on Catherine’s emails and texts, he found explicit messages between Catherine and her ex-boyfriend, which suggested there was more than a sting, but that they had been carrying on a long-term affair throughout the Kassenoffs’ marriage. And that Catherine’s real motive in sending a video to her ex-boyfriend’s wife was not vengeance but rather her hope that his wife would divorce him and he would return to her.
Allan pointed out to Baker that Catherine never told him that she blamed her ex-boyfriend for her inability to get pregnant or how that led to cancer. In fact, Allan said he was puzzled how an abortion could lead to cancer and why it would be the ex-boyfriend’s fault.
Catherine and Allan Kassenoff
Later, Catherine blamed her cancer on the 9-11 disaster and collected more than $300,0oo from a government fund for victims.
Despite this unusual set of circumstances, including the fact that his wife planned to have sex with her ex-boyfriend and film it, Allan went along with the adoption plan.
On July 15, 2009, a baby was born in Tampa, Florida, and adopted by the Kassenoffs. A month later, the Kassenoffs had the infant AK in New York and hired a nanny since both Catherine and Allan were lawyers and had full-time jobs.
Catherine with her infant child
It was then that the problems got worse and worse.
See our next in the series on Kassenoff vs. Harvey.
