Court reveals Michael Jackson died with staggering amount of debt
He might have spent his entire life as a well-paid superstar who entertained millions of fans all over the world for decades, but it has been revealed that Michael Jackson was the complete opposite of a wealthy man when he died.
Of course, the spending habits of the ‘King of Pop’ were hardly a secret, with Jackson throwing away cash like there was no tomorrow on everything from the back catalogue of The Beatles to his Neverland ranch, never mind his exorbitant investments on jewellery, pets, furniture, art, and pretty much anything that can be purchased.
According to a recent court filing made by the executors of his estate, Jackson was half a billion dollars in debt at the time of his death in June 2009, when he died from cardiac arrest at the age of 50 after being administered a lethal dose of surgical anaesthetic propofol by his personal physician Conrad Murray.
The majority of his debts were made up in debt and creditors’ claim, “with some of the debt accruing interest at extremely high interest rates.” A court heard that at the time of his passing, Jackson had upwards of 65 claims made against him by various creditors, and was facing dozens of lawsuits as a result.
The filings made with the Los Angeles County Superior Court additionally revealed that Jackson’s estate was left financially liable for his inability to complete his ‘This Is It’ residency scheduled to run between July 2009 and March 2010, which resulted in a $40 million debt to concert promoters AEG.
Battles over Jackson’s estate rumbled on for more than a decade after his death, but the fact he was an estimated $500 million in the hole is staggering. Surging interest rates were singled out as the biggest catalyst, with the singer’s representatives acknowledging how his largest annual expense by far were payments on his debts.
In the years since, though, Jackson’s estate has become one of the most lucrative around. It’s estimated that he’s generated over $3 billion in income despite being dead for a decade and a half, giving Elvis Presley some serious competition when it comes to determining the top-earning celebrity who long since shuffled off their mortal coil.
Needless to say, that posthumous earning power has since eliminated the mountains volume of debt he carried while alive, but it boggles the mind to think that one of the most famous people on the planet who was paid very handsomely for a very long time popped their clogs half a billion in the red.
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