Money ‘sues’: Cardi files suit

RED-HOT rapper Cardi B is suing her former manager for $15 million, claiming he exploited her and tried to “maintain complete control over her . . . even attempting to control her personal life, telling her who she should and should not see romantically.”

Klenord Raphael, aka Shaft, filed suit against Cardi back in April, claiming he’d built up her career only to be left out in the cold once she hit the big time.

But on Thursday, Cardi hit back, countersuing Shaft and alleging he gained her trust, cut her off from other friends and advisers, and then signed her on to contracts that were variously described in the suit as “grossly unfair,” “highly one-sided” and “highly favorable to himself.”

The suit, filed in New York’s Southern District by attorney Paul LiCalsi of Robins Kaplan, claims that Shaft used money that belonged to Cardi — whose real name is Belcalis Almanzar — for “personal travel, entertainment and expenses,” and that employees of Shaft’s company, KSR, “[helped] themselves to the ‘Bank of Almanzar,’ ” taking “loans” of up to $15,000 without Cardi’s knowledge.

In the court papers, Cardi’s team claims that Shaft took a 20 percent fee as her manager — but then set up two companies, WorldStar and KSR, through which they claim he convinced Cardi to put more money in his pocket, with one of the deals taking 50 percent of the royalties from her work with Atlantic Records.

Cardi’s suit claims that when the artist “questioned whether it was proper for her to receive only 50 percent,” Shaft “deceitfully told her that this was an absolutely standard percentage for a recording artist to receive.” The suit calls the conduct of Shaft and his companies “an egregious and reprehensible breach of all trust and confidence placed in them” by Cardi. Now she seeks $15 million from him. It also accuses Shaft of “self-dealing” and breaching his fiduciary duty.

Shaft’s rep didn’t comment.