According to a court document filed by the pop star’s estate, Michael Jackson’s debts and claims from creditors totaled more than $500 million at the time of his death in 2009. This details his financial problems at the end of his life.
Jackson owed about $40 million to tour promoter AEG, according to the filing filed this month in Los Angeles County Superior Court and This was reported earlier by the American magazine People. The filing stated that 65 creditors had filed claims against the singer after his death, some of which had resulted in lawsuits, and that some of his debts had “earned interest at extremely high rates.”
A representative for the Jackson estate, which is run by John Branca and John McClain, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The estate filed the court documents as a request to authorize the payment of approximately $3.5 million to various law firms for their work in the second half of 2018.
In the report filed with the court, the executors report that the estate’s debts have been paid off and that virtually all creditors’ claims and lawsuits have been resolved.
Jackson earned hundreds of millions of dollars in the 1980s and 1990s as the creator of some of the best-selling albums of all time, along with dazzling concert tours that filled stadiums around the world. He purchased the Beatles’ song catalog in 1985 for $47.5 million and later sold it to Sony/ATV Music in exchange for a 50 percent stake in the company. Sony bought the estate’s stake back in 2016 for $750 million.
But when Jackson died at the age of 50, just before he was due to embark on a tour called This Is It, he left behind a tangle of assets and debts.
Jackson was famous for his extravagant lifestyle and lavish spending. He ran up millions of dollars in debt from his Neverland Ranch estate in Los Angeles and had a penchant for expensive art, jewelry and private jets. He paid more than $30 million a year in interest payments, a forensic accountant testified in a 2013 wrongful death lawsuit, in which AEG won.
Jackson’s estate is currently embroiled in a dispute with the IRS following a tax audit. In a separate court this yearthe estate said the federal agency accused it of undervaluing its assets and said it owed “an additional $700 million in taxes and penalties.”
Kirsten Noyes contributed to research.
