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Just go to msn.com....it's called "The Mystery Around Jackson's Money"....pretty high profile for non-believers to see....
Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Guest
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"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places....and those who don\'t believe in magic will never find it" - Roald Dahl

WOW!  That is right out there hey?

Written by a writer from TheWrap.com (makes me think of "that's a wrap" LOL)

If you go to You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login there are a series of articles called "Saving Michael"  :?

Interesting.... I will be reading more into this and the other articles.
Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Guest
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Posting the two of them:

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Quote
Who's controlling Michael Jackson's financial empire?

Johnnie L. Roberts
TheWrap

No one said that ruling Michael Joseph Jackson's inner circle would be a smooth moonwalk.

But just a year and a half after the death of the superstar, lawyer John G. Branca is about to oversee the release of a posthumous album on Dec. 14 under a new $250 million deal for the estate, even as he negotiates a way out of the looming $300 million debt that Jackson left behind.

Bing: Battle over Jackson's estate

 
Lawyer John Branca, co-executor of Michael Jackson's estate (©Nick Ut/AP)


John Branca has never embraced the limelight. But in a months-long investigation by this reporter, comprising of secret documents and two dozen interviews, including a lengthy taped interview with Branca himself, TheWrap reveals the complicated relationship between the singer and the lawyer that Jackson would hire for the last time within a week of his death.

In that short final tenure, Branca was left permanently in charge of one of the most important music legacies of our time.

Branca's roller-coaster relationship with Jackson unfolds over 30 years of hiring and refiring.

More from TheWrap: Lost 2003 Michael Jackson video


It is punctuated by moments of brilliance, such as when the lawyer orchestrated Jackson's purchase of the Beatles' song catalogue, ATV Music, perhaps the most important deal of Jackson's life.

But some might conclude that Branca is no hero at all. A deal in 2003 to sell Jackson's interests in the Beatles and Mijac catalogues to the investment bank Goldman Sachs may lead some to question Branca's role in Jackson's business affairs.

Either way, his importance in the constellation of Michael Jackson's firmament cannot be dismissed.

The release of Jackson's first posthumous album in December comes on the heels of record-setting income of $275 million in the year since Jackson died. According to Forbes magazine, the sum topped the year's list of entertainer's posthumous earnings.

From 2003 to 2004, virtually the identical financial crisis -- almost $300 million of debt, with the songs at stake -- was met with a momentous initiative by a powerful cast of financial players that included Wall Street-savvy Goldman Sachs, veteran music entrepreneur Charles Koppelman and a Florida entrepreneur dogged by mob suspicions, Alvin Malnik.

A cache of confidential documents from the seven-year-old episode -- a copy of which was provided to this reporter by a member of the group -- reveals an intriguing inside look at this momentous effort, which long has been an object of media fascination and Internet-based conspiracy theorists.

Also: See photos of Michael Jackson

The documents range from trust materials and loan records, to papers bearing on facets of Jackson's dealings with Sony, where his music career was anchored.  As best can be determined, few, if any, outsiders have had access to the nearly 300-page paper trail.

Coupled with some two dozen interviews, the materials help paint a panoramic picture of Jackson's precarious financial status. They also offer a sharper portrait of the complex relationship between Jackson and Branca.

In the documents, Goldman's master financial alchemists began proposing a venture to position Jackson as "the Bill Gates of the music industry" and described how not only the $300 million debt might be whittled, but also detailed how the beleaguered legend could walk away with perhaps $1.3 billion -- with the Wall Street firm exiting even richer.

But only if he would sell his interest not only in Sony/ATV but in Mijac, the catalogue of Jackson's own hits. According to the secret documents, Goldman was even poised to "drag" Jackson along into a deal to sell them.

As the proposal evolved, its fundamental flaw -- that Jackson would forfeit the rights to his songs -- remained clearly apparent to Branca. More than anyone, Branca knew that owning the songs was one of Jackson's great passions and that the singer worried greatly about them slipping from his grasp.

So why, then, had Branca worked so hard, as the secret files to indicate, for an outcome most feared by his client?

According to entrepreneur Malnik, Branca stood to collect $17 million from the Goldman dealings for the 5 percent that he owned in Jackson's stake in the Beatles catalog.

In a July 2003 missive on his firm's letterhead, Branca essentially put Goldman on notice that it ultimately must ensure Jackson's ongoing obligation -- including "direct payment of this firm's 5%" -- if the proposal progressed.

Alas, the Goldman proposal, more than a year in the making, got no further than the paper on which it was written. Rather, it was scuttled by Jackson against a backdrop of behind-the-scenes hijinks that seemed to mirror his final, sad decade, which roiled with scandals, a criminal trial, epic debt and an ever-rotating inner circle.

In a statement, Goldman Sachs confirmed its role, noting that its private equity arm was involved. "Several years ago, GS Capital Partners engaged with Mr. Jackson's advisers when they were trying to generate liquidity under difficult circumstances," Goldman said. "At the time, we were broadly interested in acquiring music publishing assets, and this was one of many deals we looked at."

The bank, which wouldn't comment specifically on its intent to "drag" Jackson into a transaction, concluded: "We ultimately decided not to pursue the acquisition of these assets."

As for Branca, by the time the deal collapsed, the super-lawyer had been fired.

It was not the first time. Jackson repeatedly fired Branca, whose firm Ziffren, Brittenham, Branca, Fischer, Gilbert-Lurie, Stiffelman, Cook, Johnson, Lande & Wolf is one of the entertainment industry's most powerful.

Indeed, in June 2009, within a week of Jackson's death, Branca returned to the fold after a three-year break up. Six days after Jackson's drug-fueled death -- and having spoken to him only once in three years -- Branca, along with longtime Jackson family friend John McClain,  emerged as co-executor of the tragic icon's extraordinary estate.

 
This summer, however, Branca became preoccupied with Jackson's massive $300 million bank debt, due this month, against the estate's crown jewel -- one-half interest in Sony/ATV Music Publishing that comes due next month.

At the core of Sony/ATV's enviable collection of rights to songs such by artist such as Elvis, Bob Dylan and Eminem, is the Beatles song catalog, a 20th century musical treasure that Branca once famously arranged for Jackson to own outright.

Today, Sony/ATV, which Sony Corp. co-owns, is worth at least $1.6 billion, a valuation substantially attributable to the Beatles.

The due date for the mammoth loan loomed this month, and missing it might have meant a loosening of the estate's grip on its half of Sony/ATV. But Branca beat the clock by months, arranging to refinance the loan in September through the Swiss financial services giant, UBS.

Branca had a previous encounter with the songs and the debt.







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Quote
Inside Secrets of the Goldman Deal
By Johnnie L. Roberts
Published: December 05, 2010 @ 8:46 pm
Print this page EmailShare33Share72 The transaction outlined in the secret Goldman file would have been the culmination of an ambitious proposal to salvage Michael Jackson’s crumpled financial life. Jackson owed $270 million to Bank of America, which could take control of his songs had he missed a looming due date.

Under the Goldman proposal, he’d forfeit the music -- an outcome that he fiercely wanted to avoid -- but emerge with a horde of as much as $1.3 billion.

The confidential files from those days were provided by a member of the Goldman Sachs group, which grew out of a chain of relationships started by “Rush Hour” director Brett Ratner in late 2002. (Click on documents to enlarge.)

Acting as Jackson’s adviser, Charles Koppelman, the veteran entertainment executive and investor, recruited Goldman Sachs and worked closely with two of its private-equity aces, Gerry Cardinale and Henry Cornell, in crafting the proposal.

Ahead of the proposal, he and Florida businessman Al Malnik also arranged to double -- to $70 million -- one of Jackson’s two loans with Bank of America, where a Koppelman friend, Jane Heller, happened to handle his and Jackson’s personal accounts.

See the full document: Jackson's $70M Loan

The confidential Goldman documents detail a proposal with several steps:


How Michael Jackson Nearly Lost His Prized Music Catalog
The Secret Probe That Got Branca Fired>> First, Goldman and Jackson become 50-50 owners in a new company, Music LLC.

>> Next, Music forms a separate company, “Newco,” with new partners -- Sony, with its half of the Beatles, and Goldman putting up money.

>> Newco’s assets would be 100 percent of Sony/ATV (the Beatles) and Mijac (Jackson’s hits) and Goldman (more cash).

>> Newco would swallow Warner Music Group’s music publisher, Warner-Chappell, and combine it with Sony-ATV.

See: Goldman's Secret Rescue Plan and The Term Sheet

A target list also included other publishers -- arms of Universal Music Group, BMG or EMI. The goal: industry dominance.

Jackson’s original stake would shrink as more investors entered the Goldman-crafted venture. “Like Bill Gates, [Jackson] would have a smaller stake in a multibillion-dollar company,” Goldman declared in a talking-point memo dated April 15, 2003. (See: Michael Jackson = Bill Gates)

Within five years, Goldman’s typical time frame for such investments, all would have been monetized in a sale of the venture, most likely to Sony Corp. By Goldman’s projections, Jackson’s share would be $700 million to $1.3 billion.
But backend riches didn’t solve Jackson’s shorter term crisis of repaying the $270 million bank debt. Not to worry. A $135-million Goldman loan would retire the $70-million Bank of America loan and $7-million due Sony. He would catch up on $12 million in overdue monthly bills and have a few million as a cushion.

« Willie Nelson Picked Up for Pot Possession Box Office: 'Tangled' Has 2nd Best T-Giving Opening Ever at $69M » The Secret Probe That Got Branca Fired
By Johnnie L. Roberts
Published: December 05, 2010 @ 8:48 pm
Print this page EmailShare33Share77 It’s known as the “Interfor Report,” after the Manhattan-based corporate espionage firm, Interfor Inc.

The contents -- based on a private investigation by the firm on Michael Jackson’s behalf in 2002 and 2003 -- included stunning assertions about John Branca, the entertainer’s on-again, off-again music attorney for 30 years and now co-executor of his estate.

Interfor’s investigation, "found a tight business relationship between Branca and Tommy Mottola,” then-CEO of Sony Music, where Jackson was an artist, according to an excerpt from the firm’s final report. The excerpt added: “Interfor has begun investigating the flow of funds from Jackson through Mottola and Branca into offshore accounts in the Carribean [sic].”

Read the excerpt.

The investigation, which apparently began in late 2002, provided no credible evidence to corroborate those and other assertions. And the probe may have been little more than part of an elaborate smear campaign intended to influence the beleaguered Jackson to fire Branca.

If so, it was successful.

“This is to confirm that I am terminating the services of you and your firm effective upon delivery of this letter,” Jackson wrote the attorney in February 2003. “You are commanded to immediately cease expending effort of any kind on my behalf…You are specifically instructed to transfer any funds you are holding in trust for me…”


How Michael Jackson Nearly Lost His Prized Music Catalog
Inside Secrets of the Goldman DealBranca declined repeated overtures for further comment after having granted this reporter a lengthy taped interview last summer.

Mottola, who abruptly resigned from Sony a month before Jackson fired Branca, called the assertion about off-shore accounts involving him "nonsense." But in an interview Sunday evening,  he also added that he would have been unaware of any offshore accounts established by Branca, Jackson or both. It's "not anything that a multinational corporation like Sony" would have been involved in during his tenure, Mottola reiterated.

It’s unclear who ordered the investigation. But the report, dated April 15, 2003, was prepared for an attorney with Hale Lane Peek Dennison & Howard, the firm that Jackson hired to succeed Branca. In a brief interview in June, the lawyer, Fred D. Gibson III, confirmed that Jackson was a client of the firm.

(There are some indications that the report in some way figured in Jackson’s child molestation trial in 2005, and it has been grist for internet conspiracy theorists apparently for years. More recently, Joe Jackson filed the Interfor excerpts in his son’s probate case in an unsuccessful effort to oust Branca as co-executor.)

The report materialized  in 2003 amid a complex, and ultimately aborted, effort by a new inner circle of Jackson financial advisers, including Goldman Sachs, to craft a bailout of the beleaguered entertainer. With the due date on the horizon, Jackson owed a breathtaking $270 million to Bank of America. And a default would mean Jackson’s probable loss of, among other things, his most prized assets -- half share in Sony/ATV Music Publishing, repository of the Beatles song catalog, and Mijac, the catalogue of his own songs, including “Beat It” and “Billy Jean.”
Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Guest
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Please, click "I Like It" on my Facebook page if you like my drawings :) You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login<br>

RunFaYaLife

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Interesting read ...has more clickable links.
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Quote
Michael Jackson: secret business genius?
Jan. 27, 2011, 4:03 PM EST

Zack O'Malley Greenburg
Forbes.com

In 2010 Michael Jackson earned $275 million -- more than Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Madonna and Jay-Z combined -- despite the fact that he was no longer alive.

Though much of that total can be attributed to the swell of nostalgia that boosted sales of all things Michael in the months following the King of Pop's death, a sizable part is the product of his underrated business acumen.

To be sure, Jackson's spending habits could put a Russian oligarch to shame. He blew the profits from sales of 750 million records on extravagances ranging from $10,000-a-night hotel stays to the construction and upkeep of his sprawling Neverland Ranch. Keeping money was not one of Jackson's strong suits. But piling up stacks of it -- and finding unusual ways to ensure that more would follow -- was one of his many talents.
Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Guest
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skyways

OH_MY_GOSH!!!  
THIS IS BRILLIANT find  AND MICHAELS MIND IS TRULY GENIUS !!

That trap-wrap- entrap  scenario is clearly explain Everything for MJs protection and surely put at stake his life& life of his children. :(    = (
 
I just cant bear this world full of gready fat bastards, who use Every piece of souls around  to influents  on our childrens  fragile  mind  !!!!

To stand up before that monster Industry , and  calculate their moves, and bein Resistant, and find a Courage  to Shake the World  and Justify  universal Law of Love for new generation  ----  You are Truly need to be in State of Grace, Amazing Grace  ----  and with all my heart and soul I bow before You ,  Michael, for  You Staing Alive and Fight All Way Long !!..

ALL BLESSINGS TO THE KING, My Friends !!!
Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Guest
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skyways

I cant believed  -  NO  ONE
 have make single comment on THAT thread??..!!

To The Mods & Admin :  
I Believe This Topic Deserved  SPECIAL PLACE  on the top of each subforum due to IMPORTANCE    &     RELIABILITY  of very inner info,   that give  DIrect answer on WHY !!  hoax being maked.

iSnt give us also reason Why Kenny Ortega is dropped now from the case, But AEG is Sued again by  Kathrine & MJ  children!! One more time??

Hi TS!
 Good to see you around  ;)
( just see u _Comment on KO  thread)Will be nice to hear you thoughts, if you read, PLZ...
Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Guest
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suspicious mind

ok i am not necessarily following this  :?  can anyone make this any clearer ? :oops:
Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Guest
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"I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves."  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login




Why not just tell people I'm an alien from Mars? Tell them I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight. They'll believe anything you say, because you're a reporter. But if I, Michael Jackson, were to say, "I'm an alien from Mars and I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight," people would say, "Oh, man, that Michael Jackson is nuts. He's cracked up. You can't believe a single word that comes out of his mouth."

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skyways

ANYMORE COMMENT ON THAT ONE?..
Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Guest
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Wow! Although this has been written awhile ago, its an excellent article! It gives a realistic insight on what MJ truly has to deal with. I would cry for years if the rights to his beautiful songs were in the hands of some egotistical filthy grimey Fat Cat who could care less about MJ's hard work and ground breaking accomplishments. They tried to slap a 20 yr prison term on MJ, and were very unsuccessful. And Im sure the lawsuits that followed were apart of it. With the constant legal suits and payment for attorneys throughout the years, MJ couldnt keep up and had to think quick. The death hoax was a desperate measure and last resort. But it was a carefully thought out plan, and was executed brilliantly. I wish I had more 'legal' knowledge, I'm just a hippie massage therapist  :lol:  but I'm not slow!
Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 06:00:00 PM by Guest
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