Mariah Carey’s ex-assistant is denying all allegations she tried to extort the singer and wants a $3 million lawsuit against her thrown out.
Last month (Jan19), Mariah sued Lianna Azarian, who also goes by the name Lianna Shakhnazaryan, alleging she had misspent money on business credit cards, filmed her without consent and had threatened to release embarrassing videos.
Lianna responded by filing her own lawsuit against Mariah and her former manager Stella Bulochnikov, among others, making numerous allegations including wrongful termination, retaliation, failure to prevent discrimination and harassment, sexual harassment, emotional distress, and battery.
According to court documents obtained by U.S website The Blast, Mariah’s ex-employee has now formally responded to her old boss’s original filing, denying all allegations of wrongdoing and claiming her spending was necessitated by legitimate business costs.
In her lawsuit, the Touch My Body hitmaker claimed Lianna threatened to release damaging videos unless she was given $8 million, and accused her of being a, “Peeping (Tom)asina and an extortionist”.
However, the disgruntled ex-employee is now demanding Mariah’s lawsuit, which also seeks to claim any goods bought on the allegedly misused credit cards, be thrown out of court.
In her own complaint, Lianna says Stella slapped her butt and breasts, urinated on her, tackled her to the ground, sat on her and called her a “f**king Armenian w**re”. She also alleges Mariah witnessed or knew about the alleged incidents.
Mariah and Stella parted ways in late 2017 and her ex-manager then launched her own lawsuit claiming the singer owed her more than $100 million in commissions. They subsequently reached an undisclosed settlement.
