A Russia-born businessman with ties to President Donald Trump has been targeted in a U.S. lawsuit that accuses him of hacking into a Hollywood friend's electronics and accessing confidential information about her celebrity contacts.
The lawsuit against Felix Sater comes just days before he is scheduled to testify before a congressional committee about Trump efforts to build a skyscraper in Moscow.
The suit, filed on March 1, does not appear to involve Sater's real-estate projects or ties to Trump.
Rather, it stems from a former manager for the American pop singer Mariah Carey, who alleged Sater and a colleague created an electronic backdoor to tap into her computers, smartphones, and other devices.
Sater denied the allegations on March 4, telling the Associated Press there was no truth to them.
Sater is a former FBI informant who was convicted in a securities-fraud scheme and of assaulting a man in a bar fight.
He's partnered with Trump on several projects, including the Moscow proposal.
Trump's longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, has pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about the timeline and scope of talks he was having with Russian officials about the effort.
In testimony before Congress last week, Cohen said Sater talked with him about having Trump visit Russia during the campaign.
Sater was also involved in trying to get the White House to look at a Ukrainian peace proposal.
And he has also been targeted by the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, which on March 4 demanded files and other documents from him.
