Figure in Mueller Probe Sued by Ex-Manager to Mariah Carey

BROOKLYN, N.Y. (CN) - Describing a childhood connection to a key figure in the probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election, the former manager of Mariah Carey brought a federal complaint detailing a bizarre cyberattack.

Represented by attorneys at Pryor Cashman, Stella Bulochnikov Stolper filed suit Friday in New York’s Eastern District against FBI informant Felix Sater and an assistant, Kalsom Kam.

Stolper contends that Sater and Kam had been guests in her Los Angeles home last year when she discovered that Sater and Kam had hacked her computers and other devices. 

They stole files relating to “contracts with studios and talent, client deals and correspondence, confidential client information, scripts, treatments, contracts, and other protected intellectual property,” the complaint says.

Sater, who became a government informant after secretly pleading guilty in 1998 to participating to a pump-and-dump scheme orchestrated by the Russian mafia, has featured prominently in the ongoing investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Trump campaign collusion.

Noted for having acted as a go-between to former Trump attorney Michael Cohen during 2016 negotiations on the Trump Tower Moscow deal, Sater also passed out Trump Organization business cards that named him as “senior advisor to Donald Trump.”

In an interview Monday, Sater denied the allegations Stolper has leveled against him.

“This is a lame attempt by a former business partner and romantic interest to avoid paying her obligations to me under our confidential settlement agreement,” he said. “There is absolutely no truth or substance in these farcical allegations.”

Sater said he and Stolper were partners in Hollywood production company Firehorse Entertainment and that Kam served as an assistant to both of them.

“It’s like saying your secretary had unauthorized access to your computer,” Sater said of the hacking allegations.  

According to Friday’s suit, Stolper and Sater’s sister, Regina, were childhood friends from Brooklyn. Stolper says she was “experiencing feelings of personal and professional vulnerability” when she and Sater reconnected at a funeral in November 2017.

Around the same time, Stolper had a very public falling out with singer Mariah Carey. Stolper’s ensuing sexual harassment claims ended in a settlement with Carey this past January.

By the time her relationship with Sater “deteriorated,” Stolper says both Sater and Kam had spent substantial time at her Los Angeles home.

“Sater sought to leverage Stolper’s substantial connections in the entertainment industry, and requested that Stolper make introductions for him so that Sater could pitch media endeavors based upon his own turbulent life story,” the complaint says.

Stolper says the intellectual property and personal information that Sater stole includes her concepts for shows, business ideas, television scripts, her emails, text messages and family photos, as well as financial records.

She has demanded that Sater and Kam return her information but contends that the work of private forensic teams and computer-security experts has cost her more than $5,000.

Wikked Entertainment, a television and music production company based in Calabasas, California, is also named as a plaintiff on the suit.

Kam denied the allegations against him.

“I worked for Stella and Felix for over a year,” he wrote. “Handling appointments, emails etc. I was completely authorized by Stella to do the work that I was doing. They were business partners and were romantically involved. It is my understanding that there is a settlement agreement between them of a different matter. I vigorously deny the false allegations that have been made. Stella has a long history of suing her own lawyers, business partners & clients. Felix & I are just the latest victim in that long list.”

Sater is set to testify before the House Intelligence Committee in an open hearing later this month.

“Looking forward to it,” he said of the impending testimony. Of the Mueller investigation, he said: “I think it’s time for the actual truth, and not speculation, to finally come out.”

Stolper’s attorney Perry M. Amsellem did not return a request for comment Monday.

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