Iconic Canadian crooner Leonard Cohen has been awarded $9 million US in a civil suit he filed against his former business manager.

The 71-year-old Montreal-born singer-songwriter was awarded the ruling earlier in the week when a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge issued his decision on a civil suit Cohen had filed last August, according to The Globe and Mail.

The suit accused Kelley Lynch of fraud and negligence, as well as breaches of contract and fiduciary duty during her 16-year tenure as Cohen's business manager.

Lynch was also Cohen's lover in 1990.

Cohen took Lynch to court on allegations she skimmed more than $5 million from Cohen's savings over a period of about eight years. Cohen's retirement fund was reduced to just $150,000 by 2004.

Another defendant, Richard Westin, was also named in the suit, but reached an out-of-court settlement with Cohen last month.

When Cohen filed his claims against Lynch last year, he was being sued by Neal Greenberg for conspiracy, extortion and defamation of character.

The story drew international headlines.

Cohen originally alleged that Westin and Lynch had worked together to orchestrate the $12 million sale of a music publishing company owned by Cohen, as well as his artist royalties, with the proceeds going into a company owned almost entirely by Lynch.

Cohen claimed the pair misled him into believing the company, Traditional Holdings, was owned by his two children.

Despite the favourable court ruling, Cohen might have trouble recovering the money he has been awarded. Lynch has ignored the civil suit, neither responding to it not filing any claims of her own and ignoring a subpoena issued for her financial records.

And recently, Lynch claimed her phone had been disconnected because she was unable to pay the bill.

Cohen has been back in the spotlight recently after a long absence. He has released a poetry collection – his first in 22 years, worked on musical projects, appeared in a documentary and has been inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.