TikToker Robert Harvey is being sued by lawyer Allan Kassenoff for a series of videos Harvey made documenting Kassenof’s alleged domestic abuse of his wife, Catherine Kassenoff.
Catherine Kassenoff’s custody battle went viral when she committed assisted suicide in Switzerland in May after what she said was a terminal cancer diagnosis and ongoing setbacks in her custody case that left her feeling “emotional devastation.”
“With a few clicks of his keyboard and a video upload to TikTok, Defendant Robert Harvey financially destroyed Plaintiff Allan Kassenoff and, even worse, irreparably harmed Mr. Kassenoff’s three young children … by forcing them into a life where their identities will forever be associated with a bitter and ugly divorce and the suicide of their mother,” Kassenoff wrote in a complaint he filed in a Florida court on Tuesday.
Kassenoff alleged that Harvey’s video uploads, which garnered millions of views online, constituted cyberstalking and harassment under Florida law.
Kassenoff also alleged that the videos Harvey posted, which compiled clips uploaded to a Dropbox link by Catherine Kassenhoff before she committed suicide, showed a “reckless disregard for the truth.”
According to Kassenoff’s complaint, Harvey’s videos, which depict him as an abusive spouse and father who “took advantage of the corrupt Westchester County matrimonial court system” were “false, defamatory and misleading.”
The videos also alleged a conspiracy between Kassenoff and other figures in the Westchester County family courts to have Allan Kassenoff’s divorce case settled in his favor. After the divorce, Allan Kassenoff was granted full custody.
“Harvey’s sole motivation for intentionally destroying four lives was one thing and one thing only – money,” the complaint alleges.
One of the videos Harvey made garnered nearly 11 million views which showed Allan Kassenhoff shouting at Catherine and their children.
Harvey, Kassenoff alleged, forced the children to “into a life where their identities will forever be associated with a bitter and ugly divorce and the suicide of their mother … The Kassenoff Children, ages 14, 12 and 10, will never have privacy; they will forever be associated with Google searches that turn up harmful and destructive videos and false commentary about their lives.”
At one point, Kassenoff said, Harvey posted videos that included the unblurred faces of the minor children.
Kassenoff said the videos led to his employer, Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) being “bombard[ed]” with calls, voicemails, emails, and social media attacks by Harvey’s viewers. Kassenoff also charged Harvey—who has over 3 million followers on social media—with sending his viewers after Samsung, one of GT’s largest clients. Kassenoff says in the complaint that Harvey defamed him, intentionally inflicted emotional distress, and tortiously interfered with a business relationship. He also says that the videos showed his minor children in the video with their faces unblurred without his consent, causing them “severe emotional distress.”
Harvey built his following on social media by claiming to be a “reformed narcissist” who used to treat his wife poorly but has since learned to become a better man.
“I realized I didn’t want my children to be like me,” he told VICE in 2022. “And I didn’t want my daughter to marry someone like me. Narcissism affected my whole life. It’s hard to change a narcissist, but I think more awareness has brought more attention from the medical community. Research is suggesting that narcissists can change, but it takes a lot of work. It’s very hard.”
Allan claims that Harvey coordinated with his wife before making her final public post.
“Upon information and belief, prior to making her final Facebook post, Ms. Kassenoff reached out to Defendant Harvey in order to conspire with him to finally fulfill her goal of ‘annihilat[ing]’ Mr. Kassenoff. Upon information and belief, Ms. Kassenoff and Defendant Harvey concocted the lie that Ms. Kassenoff had been recently diagnosed with terminal cancer in order to make Ms. Kassenoff’s ‘story’ more appealing and sympathetic to the public. In fact, given that Harvey has created and posted several videos on TikTok about his own wife and mother purportedly suffering from cancer, it is not all that surprising that Ms. Kassenoff’s final Facebook post included a lie about suffering from ‘life-ending cancer.'”
Kassenhoff’s complaint alleged that this coordinated campaign caused him to lose his job at GT, where Kassenhoff says he made between $800,000-$900,000 a year.
“The damage that Harvey has done to Mr. Kassenoff’s legal career is in the tens of millions of dollars,” alleges the complaint.
On June 9, 2023, Kassenoff says, the CEO of GT told him that the firm had to sever ties with him, and two days later Kassenoff “forcibly resigned” “as a direct and proximate result of Harvey’s action.”
Kassenoff’s complaint includes a lengthy accounting of the custody battle, as well as allegations that Catherine Kassenoff abused their children and physically abused him. He also claims that Catherine Kassenoff was lying about her terminal cancer diagnosis in an attempt to garner sympathy, citing a conversation he had with her oncologist in July.
Allan Kassenhoff didn’t reply to a question asking for evidence for his claim that Catherine Kassenhoff didn’t have cancer.
The complaint includes screenshots of DMs Kassenhoff says show Harvey having inappropriate conversations with other TikTokers and boasting about the amount of money he was making off the videos. Those alleged DMs were posted by another TikToker in July who accused Harvey of ongoing narcissistic behavior and trying to meet up with women he talked with online.
That TikToker, @thatgirlbombpop, has also created content promoting what they say is Allan Kassenoff’s side of the story.
Kassenoff’s lawsuit, which he filed alongside his matrimonial attorney Gus Dimopolous, demands that Harvey stop making videos about them, and asks for over $150 million in damages. It is currently still pending.
Harvey didn’t respond to questions about what motivated him to make the videos, or whether it was appropriate to show unblurred images of the children in his videos.
As of November 2023, there has not been an update in the case.
