How Michael Jackson's family preyed and took over his wealth

New biography expose how the Jackson family used the King of Pop for his money

In the late summer of 2001, Michael Jackson’s family were after him again. It was two days before his scheduled departure for New York, where his 30th Anniversary concerts were to be staged at Madison Square Garden.

Performers would include Destiny’s Child, Ray Charles and Whitney  Houston, and friends Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando had been recruited to deliver televised speeches.

Michael wanted his family in New York as well; his brothers to perform a medley of hits from their days as the Jackson 5, while his parents sat in special box seats. The Jacksons insisted that they should receive appearance fees and it was agreed that family members would get honorariums of $250,000, even those who would just be there to watch the show

Just days before the first concert, though, Jermaine Jackson read an article that said his brother would be making as much as $10 million from the two shows and convinced his parents that Michael should pay the three of them another $500,000 apiece.

Jermaine and his father Joe drew  up a contract and, with mother Katherine in tow, chased Michael around California to try to get him to sign.

Michael took refuge for several days at the house of his friend Marc Schaffel, co-producer of the event, then made a dash north to Neverland Ranch. He and his two young children, four-year-old Prince and three-year-old Paris, had barely set foot inside  the house when Joe, Katherine and Jermaine appeared at the gate.

Michael told the security guards to tell his family he wasn’t there. Joe Jackson, though, refused to budge. ‘I’m his father,’ Joe told the guards. ‘I need to use the bathroom. His mother needs to use the bathroom. Let us in.’

Frantic, Michael phoned Schaffel. If they got through the gate, his family would hound him to sign this contract, he explained. But he couldn’t keep his mother locked outside when she was pleading just to use the bathroom.

He told Schaffel he would instruct the guards to tell his family again that Mr Jackson was not on the premises, but to admit them so that they could use the facilities.

But as soon as Joe and Jermaine were through the gate, they drove to the main house and pushed their way inside. ‘They literally ransacked the place,’ Schaffel remembered.

Michael retreated with Prince and Paris to a hiding place concealed behind a secret door at the back of his bedroom closet and phoned Schaffel from there. He was in tears, literally whimpering into the phone.

You see what they do to me? Do you understand now why I don’t want anything to do with my brothers, why I hide from them and refuse to answer their phone calls?

‘I’ve supported my brothers, supported them all,’ Michael cried. ‘I’ve put their kids through school. But they still come after me, still wanting more. It never ends. And my father’s worse than they are.’

Michael choked up, Schaffel recalled, and then sobbed: ‘The worst part, the part that kills me, is that I have to lie to my own mother. Do you understand, Marc?’ Michael asked. ‘Do you understand now why I am the way I am? How else could I be?

For someone who so often professed his loneliness, Michael Jackson spent a remarkable amount of time avoiding people. He wore disguises, broke off relationships, and changed telephone numbers, but still paparazzi, delusional women, and desperate men pursued him. The saddest part, though, was that the people Michael took the greatest pains to elude were the members of his own family.

They all looked to Michael as an ATM machine,’ observed the Los Angeles attorney and radio host  Leo Terrell.

Within hours of Michael’s death on June 25, 2009, the battle over the estate began. The King of Pop was going to be worth a billion dollars, maybe two billion, maybe more. The women of the clan initiated what became a week-long occupation and search of the Carolwood Drive chateau in Los Angeles where he died.

The first night, La Toya Jackson and her boyfriend Jeffre Phillips demanded to be admitted to the house. Three hours later, Katherine went inside after them.

It was mid-morning in London when Michael’s children’s former nanny Grace Rwaramba received a call from Katherine.

According to Rwaramba, Katherine began the conversation: ‘Grace, the children are crying. They are asking about you. They can’t believe that their father died. Grace, you remember Michael used to hide cash at the house? I’m here. Where can it be?’

But security guards said it was La Toya, along with her boyfriend, who loaded black rubbish bags filled with cash into duffel bags and placed them in the garage. La Toya would later insist that nearly all of Michael’s money was gone by the time she arrived at the house.

It did not become obvious that the Jacksons intended to remove whatever valuables were inside the house until the next morning, when Janet Jackson arrived at the front gate and demanded that it be opened to admit the moving van behind her. 

A couple of hours later the van left with La Toya’s boyfriend  Phillips at the wheel.

Katherine and her daughters made it clear they wouldn’t be leaving any time soon. ‘They camped out for most of a week,’ the head of the security firm recalled, coming and going ‘whenever they felt like it.’

Michael’s will came to light about a week after his death; its executors were to be a lawyer, an accountant and a former record company executive named by Michael. It stipulated that 40 per cent of his estate was to be held in trust for Prince, Paris, and his third child Blanket. Another 20 per cent would be assigned to various charities; the remaining  40 per cent would be used to support Katherine, who would be guardian of Michael’s children. After Katherine’s death, her share would revert to the children.

In the meantime, the executors had ‘absolute discretion’ to decide how the money from the Katherine Jackson Trust would be distributed. There was no provision for Michael’s father or siblings.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2230966/The-curse-Michaels-millions-How-Michael-Jacksons-family-preyed-fabulous-wealth-life-took-vanload-