Pop superstar Michael Jackson’s debts and creditor claims were more than $500 million at the time of his death in 2009, according to court documents filed by his estate, which detail his financial struggles toward the end of his life.
According to a lawsuit filed this month in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Jackson owes tour promoter AEG about $40 million. People magazine reported earlierAfter the singer’s death, 65 creditors filed claims against him, some of which ended up in lawsuits, and some of his debts “earned interest at extremely high rates,” according to the lawsuit.
Representatives for the Jackson estate, which is executed by John Branca and John McClain, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The estate filed court documents as a request to approve payments of about $3.5 million to multiple law firms for their work in the second half of 2018.
In court filings, the executors said they have written off the estate’s debts and that nearly all creditor claims and lawsuits have been resolved.
Jackson made hundreds of millions of dollars in the 1980s and 1990s as the creator of the best-selling albums of all time and a flamboyant concert tour that packed stadiums around the world. He bought The Beatles’ song catalog for $47.5 million in 1985 and later sold it to Sony/ATV Music for a 50% stake in the company. Sony bought back the estate’s share in 2016 for $750 million.
But Jackson died at age 50, just before embarking on a live show called “This Is It,” leaving behind a complex and tangled web of assets and liabilities.
Jackson was known for his lavish lifestyle and lavish spending — he was millions in debt on his ownership of Neverland Ranch in Southern California, and loved expensive art, jewelry and private jets — and was paying more than $30 million a year in interest. The forensic accountant testified AEG won the wrongful death lawsuit in 2013.
The Jackson Foundation is currently undergoing a tax audit and is battling the IRS. In another court filing this year,The foundation cited the federal agency as accusing it of undervaluing its assets and saying it “needs to pay an additional $700 million in taxes and penalties.”
Kirsten Noyes contributed to the research.
