Michael Jackson died with US$500 million in debt

NEW YORK - Michael Jackson’s debts and creditor’s claims at the time of his death in 2009 totalled more than US$500 million (S$680 million), according to a court filing by the pop superstar’s estate that provides details of his financial woes towards the end of his life.

Jackson owed about US$40 million to tour promoter AEG, according to the filing, which was made in Los Angeles County Superior Court in June and earlier reported by People magazine.

The filing said that 65 creditors made claims against the singer after his death, some of which resulted in lawsuits, and that some of his debt had been “accruing interest at extremely high interest rates”.

A representative for the Jackson estate, which is executed by John Branca and John McClain, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The estate filed the court papers as a request to authorise the payment of about US$3.5 million to several legal firms for their work in the second half of 2018.

In the court filing, the executors say that they have eliminated the estate’s debt and that almost all of the creditors’ claims and litigation have been resolved.

Jackson earned hundreds of millions of dollars throughout the 1980s and 1990s as the creator of some of the bestselling albums of all time, along with dazzling concert tours that filled stadiums around the world. He bought the Beatles’ song catalog for US$47.5 million in 1985 and later sold it to Sony/ATV Music in exchange for a 50 per cent share in the company. Sony bought back the estate’s share for US$750 million in 2016.

But when Jackson died at the age of 50, shortly before he was supposed to embark on a tour called This Is It, he left behind a tangled web of assets and liabilities.

Jackson was famous for his lavish lifestyle and spent money with abandon. He incurred millions of dollars in debt from his Neverland Ranch estate in Southern California and had a penchant for expensive art, jewellery and private jets. He was paying more than US$30 million annually on interest payments, a forensic accountant testified during a 2013 wrongful-death trial in which AEG prevailed.

The Jackson estate is currently in a dispute with the IRS after a tax audit. In a separate court filing in 2024, the estate said that the federal agency accused it of undervaluing its assets and said it owed “an additional US$700 million in taxes and penalties.” NYTIMES