By Simone Sebastian and Nicole Bode
DNAinfo Staff
MANHATTAN – Martin Scorsese was sued Thursday by a court-appointed receiver who claims the famed director owes disgraced celebrity financier Kenneth Starr $600,000 in unpaid fees, according to the complaint.
Reciever Aurora Cassirer, who is responsible for getting to the bottom of the alleged Ponzi schemer's tangled assets, filed the lawsuit in Manhttan Supreme Court seeking to recoup the cash from the Oscar-winning filmmaker in order to repay Starr's victims.
Cassirer also told the New York Post the Scorsese lawsuit won't be the last to raise eyebrows.
"I can tell you they'll be interesting," Cassirer told the paper, declining to reveal the identities of any of the other pending targets.
The lawsuit, which also names Scorsese's production company, Sikelia Productions, says Scorsese promised Starr 5 percent of his income in exchange for Starr’s “accounting, bookkeeping, tax and other personal management services,” then reneged on the deal and transferred his money elsewhere this January.
Scorsese had been considered among the lucky ones in Starr’s celebrity clientele, because he took his money and left before the full scope of Starr’s alleged dirty dealings came to light.
Other victims who weren’t so lucky reportedly include Uma Thurman, who allegedly caught Starr transferring $1 million out of her account without her permission, and 99-year-old philanthropist Rachel "Bunny" Mellon, who is also among the close to a dozen victims of Starr’s alleged fraud listed in the federal criminal complaint.
Also on Thursday, the federal judge in charge of Starr’s civil case put the proceedings on hold pending the outcome of Starr’s criminal case.
Judge Sidney Stein, who froze Starr’s assets last month while Cassirer conducted her research into his companies’ standing, ruled Thursday that it's too soon to determine what should happen to the assets of the disgraced financier. He ordered the civil case to take a backseat until federal prosecutors complete their trial charging Starr with stealing close to $60 million from clients.
But Stein said that Cassirer remains free to continue gathering information about Starr's complicated financial dealings, which would include future lawsuits to recoup cash from former clients and others, as well as subpoenas she's filed with banks who participated in his companies' transactions.
Stein asked Cassirer Thursday whether Starr's companies would have to declare bankruptcy. Last month, Cassirer reported that an initial survey of Starr's accounts revealed just $740,000.
"It's too premature, we haven't gotten there yet," Cassirer said.
