High-profile US lawyer Michael Avenatti has been charged with defrauding his client Stormy Daniels of about $300,000 (£237,000).
Mr Avenatti allegedly used a doctored document to divert the money which the pornstar was supposed to get from a book deal.
He then used the cash for personal and business expenses, prosecutors in New York said.
Of the estimated $300,000 (£237,000) diverted, only half has been paid back, the prosecutors claimed.
Ms Daniels is not named in the court filing, but the details of the case made it clear that she is the client involved in the case.
Mr Avenatti denied the allegations on Twitter.
"No monies relating to Ms Daniels were ever misappropriated or mishandled,” he wrote.
“She received millions of dollars worth of legal services and we spent huge sums in expenses
“She directly paid only 100.00 for all that she received. I look forward to a jury hearing the evidence," he wrote.
Mr Avenatti represented Ms Daniels when she sued to be released from a nondisclosure agreement involving an alleged tryst with Donald Trump.
The latest charges pile on top of previous allegations of legal misconduct by Mr Avenatti.
Mr Avenatti was previously charged in New York with trying to extort up to $25 million (£20 million) from Nike by threatening to expose claims that the shoemaker paid off high school basketball players to steer them to Nike-sponsored colleges.
And in Los Angeles, he is facing a multicount federal indictment alleging that he stole millions of dollars from clients, did not pay taxes, committed bank fraud and lied during bankruptcy proceedings.
Mr Avenatti has denied the allegations against him on both coasts, saying he expects to be exonerated.
Ms Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, initially hired Mr Avenatti to handle a lawsuit she filed last year in which she sought to invalidate the nondisclosure agreement she had signed with Mr Trump's then-lawyer Michael Cohen in exchange for $130,000 (£103,000).
The money was supposed to buy her silence about an alleged affair with the president, who denies that it took place.
In August, Cohen pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws in connection with the payment.
Additional reporting by the Associated Press
