MUMBAI : American rapper Cardi B has countersued her former manager for $15 million, claiming he exploited her and was trying to take a full control over her life.

The 25-year-old rapper retaliated as her manager Klenord Raphael aka Shaft, filed a $10 million lawsuit against her, alleging a breach of contract, unjust enrichment, declaratory judgment and defamation.

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 favourable to himself", reports pagesix.com.

The suit claims that Shaft used money that belonged to Cardi for his "personal travel, entertainment and expenses" and his company KSR's employees had taken $15,000 as a loan without Cardi's knowledge.

Cardi's team claims Shaft took a 20 per cent 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. She claims he took 50 per cent of the royalties from her work with Atlantic Records.

As per her suit claims that when the artiste 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, reported pagesix.com/

(Source: IANS)