All round
Michael Jackson was ‘$400 Million in debt’ when he died
A forensic accountant said Monday that despite collecting millions of dollars yearly from his song catalogs, Michael Jackson spent more than he made year after year, including $30 million in annual debt payments.
When William R. Ackerman was testifying as a defense witness in the wrongful death trial on behalf of AEG Live, he gave a thorough account of Jacko’s finances.
Ackerman outlined how Jackson spent the majority of his money on travel, art, charity, presents, and opulent furnishings, according to The LA Times. The accountant stated, “He spent a lot of money on jewelry.” Jackson’s greatest expenses, according to Ackerman, were interest on a variety of loans he had taken out. Jackson was said to be paying £15 million a year on previous debts. “His [Jackson’s] largest expenditure was consistently interest expense,” Ackerman told the jurors. “He spent a ton of money on interest.”
Ackerman testified in a New York trial about how interest rates on loans increased over time, ranging from 7% to 16.8% yearly.
According to the New York Times, Jacko’s debt grew from $30 million in 1993 to $140 million in 1998, and between $400 and $500 million by the time he died. Ackerman stated, “He was tapped out.”
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Jackson got no loans after 2007 and was three or four months behind on his San Fernando Valley house, where his mother lived at the time of his death, according to the numbers gurus.
Michael Jackson’s mother Katherine accused concert organizers AEG of failing to contact the singer’s family while he “wasted away” while practicing for the ‘This Is It’ live tour soon before his death in 2009, during the trial, which began in April.
The CPA also testified that Jackson’s 1990s tours were not profitable. Jackson made a profit on the Dangerous tour but lost $11.2 million on the HIStory tour, according to him.
Meanwhile, later this year, a handful of duets recorded by Queen singer Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson will be published for the first time. Fans will be able to hear three tracks recorded by the pair in 1983, with Queen guitarist Brian May stating that there would be “something for folks to hear” in September.