Spector sues financial aide over alleged embezzlement

Record producer Phil Spector, who is facing trial for murder, sued his financial agent for allegedly stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from his bank accounts.

The fraud suit, filed Thursday in Superior Court, names Michelle Blaine. Spector claims that Blaine, who handled his financial affairs for four years, took out a loan from his pension plan for companies she co-owned with another defendant in the lawsuit, Nori Takei.

Spector said he never authorized the loan and only found out about the move from his accountants on Monday. Further investigation revealed that Blaine had used checks and a debit/check card to take additional hundreds of thousands of dollars from Spector's accounts, the suit claims.

According to the suit, Spector confronted Blaine, who said she and her son had spent the money but agreed to pay it back. The suit asks a court to order Blaine to pay the money, along with unspecified damages, and to bar her from using Spector's funds. The suit said Blaine and Takei live in Los Angeles County. They could not be located for comment.

Spector, known for creating rock music's "wall of sound" in the 1960s, is charged with fatally shooting B-movie actress Lana Clarkson at his Alhambra mansion in early 2003. He has pleaded not guilty and is free on $1 million bail. A pretrial hearing in that case is scheduled for Monday, AP reports.