The 38-year-old music producer - real name Kasseem Dean - has been hit with the lawsuit by a Brooklyn company for allegedly conspiring with an auto dealer to resell high-end vehicles that had been leased for himself and his wife Alicia, 35.

The $42 million lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, accuses Swizz of civil racketeering - a process in which organized groups run illegal businesses.

Metro-Gem Leasing and Funding Corp. accused Swizz of leasing 11 cars through his production company, and then - with the help of middle-man Macky Dancy - attempting to sell them on to a third party.

The cars in question, which included a Bentley Continental and a Ferrari F12, were loaned to Swizz by Metro-Gem, who said they were happy to provide the cars "for use for him and his wife Alicia Keys".

The lawsuit claims that Swizz and Macky illegally resold the Ferrari - which retails at roughly $330,000 - for an unknown price which is thought to be at a mark up to the retail value.

However, a representative for Swizz claimed that he was being wrongly accused, and said that both he and Macky are "innocent".

The spokesperson said: "[Swizz Beatz and Macky Dancy] are innocent pawns in a years-long, multi-million-dollar dispute."

The news of the lawsuit comes after Swizz recently took to Instagram to defend his wife's actions after the 'If I Aint Got You' hitmaker turned up to MTV's Video Music Awards with no make-up on last month.

In a video, the producer said: "Y'all gotta think about that. This is deep. Somebody's sitting at home mad, because somebody didn't wear make-up on their face ... not your face, but they didn't put make-up on their face, because they just didn't feel like wearing make-up.

"But you're mad because that person didn't put makeup to please you? What s*** is this? Because you can do whatever you want to do. Think about it... this is deep."