Michael Jackson‘s estate has claimed that one of his accusers is threatening to reveal new child abuse allegations against the late star if he does not receive $213million.
The managers of the estate have launched legal proceedings in the US Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, claiming the accuser is threatening to unearth fresh allegations against the King of Pop ahead of an upcoming biopic.
The man and four others had told the Jackson estate in 2019 they might air claims that the superstar acted inappropriately with some of them when they were children, as reported by the Financial Times.
A year later, the estate struck a settlement worth nearly $20million with the accusers, who agreed to instead defend the singer’s reputation. But the Jackson estate now claims the man fabricated the allegations against singer and is trying to extract an additional $213million in a new settlement.
In their filing, the managers of Jackson’s wealth ask that the accuser be made to respect the 2020 settlement and be barred from releasing the claims he agreed to keep secret.
Michael Jackson ‘s estate has claimed that one of his accusers is threatening to reveal new child abuse allegations against the late star if he does not receive $213million
Jackson’s estate was $500million in debt when the singer died in 2009 but has since amassed more than $3billion.
The beneficiaries are Jackson’s three adult children, his mother and some charities.
Jackson’s will left his longtime aide John Branca as one of the managers of his wealth and legacy.
Branca told The Financial Times the estate settled with the five accusers in 2020 as a ‘business decision,’ after the HBO documentary featured Jackson accusers delivered fresh wounds to the singer’s legacy.
The accusers involved in the 2020 settlement did not participate in Leaving Neverland.
Michael Jackson’s children (L-R) Prince, Paris and Blanket Jackson. They are beneficiaries of the star’s estate, alongside their grandmother and several charities
Jackson’s will left his aide John Branca as one of the managers of his wealth and legacy
‘We survived Leaving Neverland but I’m not sure we could have with those additional allegation,’ he said.
Branca added that his lawyers told him: ‘You have no choice. If these people come forward and make these allegations, then Michael is over, his legacy is over, the business is done.’
Jackson’s Leaving Neverland accusers have branded the upcoming film, titled Michael, as ‘propaganda’ and an attempt to erase accusations of child abuse against the star.
John Carpenter, who represents Jackson accusers Wade Robson and James Safechuck, previously told DailyMail.com the Jackson clan was trying to ‘demonize the victims’ in order to protect the singer’s image rather than reckon with the truth.
Robson and Safechuck are suing two companies that Jackson owned and controlled before his death in 2009 aged 50.
The case could go to trial in Los Angeles before or even at the same time as the new biopic about Jackson, titled ‘Michael’, is released in April next year.
Wade Robson (left) and James Safechuck (right) both appeared in the harrowing 2019 HBO documentary Leaving Neverland – and detailed their allegations of abuse against Jackson
The film, directed by Antoine Fuqua and backed by Jackson’s estate, will star Jackson’s nephew, Jaafar Jackson, as the King of Pop.
But it has already proved controversial with draft copies of the script suggesting it will gloss over Jackson’s alleged abuse of underage boys.
Robson, a choreographer and director now aged 46, alleges that Jackson started sexually abusing him in 1990 when he was seven on a visit to Neverland, the singer’s former ranch just outside Los Angeles.
Safechuck, a writer and director now aged 40, claims he was just 10 when Jackson began molesting him, with their first encounter in Paris in 1988.