Jay-Z's Roc Nation filed a lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday against Iconix Brand Group Inc., a company under an SEC investigation that has now ensnared the rapper. Roc Nation lawyers say Iconix lied about its finances and tricked Jay-Z into involving himself in their business, which is now under federal investigation.

The New York Post reports Jay-Z, Roc Nation and Iconix have had a relationship since 2007, when the rap mogul sold his menswear brand Rocawear to the company for $204 million. Jay-Z and Iconix CEO Neil Cole became close and Cole began to lend the rapper money. A pension fund that invested in Iconix eventually sued Cole and the company for lying to them about the true value of Rocawear. 

Iconix owned the Rocawear brand but licensed it to a company owned by Jay-Z until 2015. Cole told investors Rocawear would be profitable for years, but now it is only worth $34 million, nearly $169 million less than Cole said.

Because of the lawsuit, the SEC sought to interview the 4:44 artist and look into whether he knew if Rocawear was intentionally overvalued, according to The Post. Last year, a federal judge forced Jay-Z to testify in the case.

“This has been delayed for five months, and I do not intend to tolerate further delay,” Manhattan federal judge Paul Gardephe said at the hearing. “In sum, there is ample basis for the SEC to investigate the company’s accounting treatment of brand assets, including Rocawear.”

Jay-Z is now saying Iconix lied to him and other brands like Ecko, Ed Hardy and PONY about their financial status. They said the situation grew "out of a massive years-long fraud perpetrated by Iconix and its affiliates to amass a portfolio of trademarks under false pretenses, in the process defrauding its licensees and partners, and setting off a colossal accounting scandal the depths of which are still being uncovered."

The lawsuit claims the company “absconded with its licensees’ money without providing the branding and retail support it promised.”

“Plaintiffs never would have entangled their business interests with Iconix had it disclosed the true condition of its business or the massive accounting fraud in which it was engaged,” Roc Nation stated in the court documents. 

The court documents allege Jay-Z and his companies have been damaged by the scandal. He even complained that the SEC was on a celebrity hunt last year when they demanded he testify.

The federal investigations into Iconix have now spilled into Jay-Z's businesses, costing him millions in legal fees. 

“Neil basically created a venture to fund whatever Jay-Z wanted to fund,” one source with knowledge of the relationship told the New York Post last year.

“But when things went south, Neil wasn’t funding the companies anymore and Jay-Z lost interest in the partnership.”