NEW YORK (CelebrityAccess) Cardi B has responded to a lawsuit filed by her former manager, Klenord Raphael, who claims the rapper reneged on their contract, with a counterclaim of $15 million and a rescinding of their contract.
Raphael, known as Shaft, filed a lawsuit in April against the new rap superstar soon after she finally dropped her debut album. The lawsuit also names as defendants current managers Kevin “Coach K” Lee and Pierre “Pee” Thomas of Quality Control Management. Raphael claims that, after discovering Cardi B, signing her and recording her, he was cut off from his 20 percent cut of her revenue once she saw success. He also sued Cardi B – real name Belcalis Almanzar – claiming she and her publicist, Patientce Foster (sic) disparaged him on social media.
The counterclaim, filed by Almanzar, (minus Foster, Quality Control Management, Lee and Thomas), denies almost all but the basic allegations, acknowledging that Foster is indeed her publicist, for example, or that she did indeed sign a management contract and recording contract with Raphael and his company WorldStar.
Cardi B Sued By Her Former Manager
The counterclaim alleges that the contract should be pronounced null and void because Raphael and WorldStar did not live up to their side of the agreement, such as providing outside counsel for the agreement, for not providing a business manager and “specifically by failing to review and fully disclose the material terms of the KSR Recording Agreement and the Furnishing Agreement with Ms. Almanzar.”
“Shaft and KSR/WorldStar controlled all the books and records relating to Ms. Almanzar’s professional activities,” the counterclaim reads. “When they did finally provide some cryptic, incomplete information in or around early 2018, it became clear that KSR and/or its employees had been helping themselves to the “Bank of Almanzar,” taking Ms. Almanzar’s earnings for purported personal loans.
“One summary statement provided to Ms. Almanzar at this time showed that in or around June of 2017, an employee of KSR had taken $15,000, which was apparently booked as a ‘loan’ to the employee from Ms. Almanzar in KSR’s records. Unlike most loans, this loan was not formalized with any note, carried no interest, required no collateral and provided no realistic means of repayment.”
The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages of $5 million, punitive damages of $15 million, rescission of the management agreement and the KSR Recording agreement and payment of all attorneys fees, among other requests.
