A former FBI special agent has "corroborated" claims by Britney Spears' legal team that her father, Jamie Spears, had the star's bedroom wiretapped, according to a declaration filed in court.
In documents filed on Tuesday, Britney Spears' lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, stated that former FBI agent Sherine Ebadi concluded that a "secret recording device" was placed in the singer's bedroom by an employee at Black Box Security.
Alex Vlasov, the employee in question, first went public with his claim in the 2021 documentary Controlling Britney Spears, saying that during the nine years he worked for the "Toxic" singer her conservators bugged her phone and home.
His claims in The New York Times' documentary were supported with alleged audio recordings, emails and text messages from his time working for the star, according to broadcasters FX and Hulu.
Ebadi, who is now an associate managing director of a forensic intelligence firm at Kroll Associates, stated that she "personally debriefed and interviewed the whistleblower, Alex Vlasov, at the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles," according to Entertainment Tonight.
She also declared that she "corroborated the Times's reporting on Mr. Spears's extensive, surveillance efforts, including of Ms. Spears's attorney-client communications and private conversations in her bedroom."
"Vlasov told me that Mr. Spears was particularly interested in his daughter's attorney-client communications and wanted regular updates from Black Box on the substance of those privileged messages," Ebadi went on to state.
"[The] Black Box employee who placed the secret device in Ms. Spears's bedroom explained to Mr. Vlasov that he did so by duct-taping it behind furniture so it could not be seen," said Ebadi, "and that he added a separate battery pack to the recording device to permit continuous recording for a longer period of time."
Ebadi stated in the declaration that Vlasov and Black Box's CEO "had listened to the recordings made in Ms. Spears's bedroom but found nothing useful."
The former FBI special agent concluded that, based on her training, she found Vlasov "highly credible."
According to the documents, the alleged monitoring was temporarily disrupted when Britney Spears switched from using a Blackberry to an iPhone in or around 2013. The documents allege that Jamie Spears expressed concern about not having an insight into his daughter's activity during this period of time.
Ebadi concluded that Jamie Spears "used his role as Conservator to enrich himself and those loyal or useful to him, often at the expense and against the best interests of his own daughter, whose assets, welfare, and best interests he was supposed to protect."
She also alleged that the patriarch "engaged in and directed others to engage in unconscionable violations of Ms. Spears's privacy and civil liberties, which also implicates federal or state criminal violations of the law."
In her declaration, Ebadi said she was informed by Vlasov that the alleged surveillance of Britney's phone continued until "early 2021."
Newsweek has contacted a representative of Jamie Spears for comment.
When the allegations were first made on the release of Controlling Britney Spears back in September, Jamie Spears' lawyer said in a statement shared with The New York Times that he had acted with his daughter's consent.
"All of his actions were well within the parameters of the authority conferred upon him by the court," read the statement. "His actions were done with the knowledge and consent of Britney, her court-appointed attorney, and/or the court. Jamie's record as conservator—and the court's approval of his actions—speak for themselves."
After almost 14 years at the helm, Jamie Spears was suspended from the conservatorship—two months before the arrangement was dissolved altogether.
Britney Spears accused her father of "conservatorship abuse" in a court testimony last summer as she battled to be released from the arrangement. She has also spoken out against him, and another family members, on social media.
Jamie Spears has insisted that he acted in the best interests of his daughter, who was placed under the conservatorship amid concerns over her mental health.
Meanwhile, lawyers for Britney Spears and her father faced off against one another in a Los Angeles court on Wednesday over access to the singer's money. Her father had sought for his legal fees to be paid by his daughter's estate.
Amid accusations that Jamie Spears had misappropriated funds, Rosengart stated that he "already should have more than enough resources to pay his new lawyers."
Judge Brenda Penny ruled on Wednesday that the singer should have control of the money that had been kept in the conservatorship.
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Ryan Smith is a Newsweek Senior Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on ... Read more
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