Los Angeles:

Singer Leonard Cohen has sued his former business manager, claiming that she stole $5 million from his accounts while he was cloistered in a Buddhist monastery. Cohen, 70, alleges that Kelley Lynch embezzled the amount between 1994 and 1999 while he was at the Mount Baldy Zen Centre in California. Lynch was sacked in late 2004 after managing the singer’s affairs for 17 years.

The complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court accused Lynch of “greed, self-dealing, concealment, knowing misrepresentation and reckless disregard for professional fiduciary duties.” Maclean’s magazine quoted Cohen, 70, as saying that Lynch’s actions had reduced his retirement savings from some $5 million to $150,000 and forced him to mortgage his house. “I was devastated,” the Maclean’s story quoted Cohen as saying.