Jackson tied to ‘boulder of debt’

WHEN he surrendered to the Santa Barbara sheriff last week Michael Jackson resembled an ageing Joan Crawford, pale, frail and weighing 120lbs.

His financial wellbeing appears equally fragile. With each successive record costing more and earning less, he is finding it increasingly difficult to maintain his lavish lifestyle.

By any measure Jackson, 45, must be considered wealthy. But according to advisers, industry friends and court records, he is an extravagant spender whose wealth is consumed by an appetite for monkeys, Ferris wheels and surgery.

A lawsuit against Jackson said he is tethered to a boulder of debt, totalling near $200m, which comes due in several years.

There are at least four liens on his 2,700-acre Neverland Ranch, and even the state of California laid claim to the property to force Jackson to pay taxes. Most of his assets are from his half ownership of the Beatles catalogue, valued conservatively at $272 million.

The pop star has at times mortgaged the royalties to other songs he owns to raise cash. And he is also the subject of hundreds of lawsuits. Defending himself against charges that he molested a 12-year-old boy, which he has called “big lies”, could cost him millions.

So troubled are his finances, his advisers tried to limit his spending to $1 million a month this summer, said a person apprised of Jackson’s situation who spoke on condition of anonymity.

It is unclear if Jackson himself paid the $3m bail when he was booked last week on charges that could send him to prison for 10 years or more.

Nevertheless, Jackson is convinced, people who know him say, that the next record will earn enough to pay off his creditors and rescue his ragged reputation. In March, he was ordered to pay $5.3m to a concert promoter who said Jackson had reneged on a deal to perform at charity concerts.