Michael Jackson Can't Stop Courtin'
Michael Jackson's accounting skills are once again being called into question.
The oft-sued artist was named in a new lawsuit filed by Los Angeles law firm Ayscough & Marar, which claims Jackson owes more than $200,000 in legal fees for services rendered in 2005.
The suit, which was filed July 25 in Los Angeles Superior Court and obtained by TMZ.com, alleges that Jackson hired the firm during his child-molestation trial to perform tasks such as obtaining court orders sealing civil cases filed against him from the press and orders staying discovery in those civil cases while the criminal trial was ongoing.
One of the cases the firm worked on pushing back was the lawsuit filed against Jackson by former business associate F. Marc Schaffel, which resulted in a split decision at trial earlier this month.
But it was far from the only case, according to attorney Brent Ayscough, who claims in the suit that by summer 2005, "Nearly all my time was spent on Michael Jackson cases."
And, up until mid-2005, Ayscough was compensated for his toils, per the suit. But then the responsibility for paying the bills shifted from Jackson's business advisor, Ron Burkle, to the law firm of Mesereau & Yu, where Thomas Mesereau, Jackson's lead defense attorney in the child molestation case, is a partner. At that point, per Ayscough, the payments stopped coming.
According to the suit, the firm of Mesereau & Yu was paid a lump sum of $2.6 million that it was supposed to share with various other members of Jackson's ever-expanding legal team. But, according to the suit, Ayscough & Marar never saw its portion of the fund.
Mesereau & Yu is not named as a defendant in the suit, which further details a number of significant debts owed by Jackson, including more than $300 million to Fortress Investment Group, over $1.6 million to his brother, Randy Jackson, and assorted millions to various lawyers.
Jackson's financial woes don't end there. On Monday, a federal judge allowed a breach-of-contract suit brought by Prescient Acquisition Group against Jackson's MJ Publishing Trust to move forward.
The financial firm is seeking at least $48 million in fees for its role in assisting Jackson with refinancing a $272.5 million bank loan and for helping him to come up with the cash to acquire a greater stake in the Beatles catalogue.
A judge ordered all parties, including Jackson, to appear in court in September.
Meanwhile, as if Jackson's legal docket wasn't full enough, trial is scheduled to commence Tuesday in the erstwhile King of Pop's lawsuit against concert promoter Marcel Avram.
Jackson sued Avram last year, challenging his attempts to arbitrate a dispute over an earlier settlement rather than have it resolved in court.
Avram initially sued Jackson back in 2000 for pulling out of a pair of millennium concerts that cost the promoter millions.
In 2003, a jury ruled that Jackson owed Avram $5.3 million in damages--far less than the $21 million the promoter had been seeking, but a victory nonetheless.
Avram's suit also sought damages for a pair of charity concerts that Jackson canceled, but the promoter and entertainer agreed to settle that part of the case out of court.
They reached a tentative deal that allowed Avram to sell CDs and DVDs from earlier Jackson concerts he promoted and agreed that under the terms of the deal, any future claims regarding the nixed concerts would be resolved in Los Angeles Superior Court.
However, Sony Music, which controls Jackson's music, refused to allow Avram to release any material, leading the promoter to pursue arbitration. Jackson subsequently filed a lawsuit attempting to block his former associate from resolving their dispute in a manner other than the one they had previously agreed upon.
Jackson, who recently pulled up stakes and relocated to Europe, is not expected to attend the trial.
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