There's now a criminal twist in the contentious divorce proceedings between Dr. Dre and Nicole Young.

This summer,  Larry Chatman, who founded Record One studio with Dre in 2015, accused Nicole of stealing almost 400K from the studio.

Chatman says that Nicole embezzled $353,000 from Record One's business account in late August.  After he sent her a letter confronting her with the theft and booting her off the account, she was bold enough to cut herself another check for $31,457 days later.

 She claims she has a right to the money in the Record One account because her name is on it.

The difference between what Chatman said and what Nicole said is the rather serious charge of grand theft.

The Record One checks came up recently in the divorce hearings, and Nicole took the 5th, shielding herself from self-incrimination.  That encouraged Dre to file a police report against his estranged wife.

Dre is likely using this as leverage as he and Nicole hash out the terms of their divorce.  She thinks she should get $2 million a month, whereas Dre wants the number to be closer to 300K.

"Once this case is resolved and Dre discontinues his current practice of paying for all of her expenses, Nicole is going to have to learn to tighten that belt," a source told TMZ.