Michael Jackson’s Daughter Says Lawyers Are ‘Skimming Money’ From His Estate In New Filing

Photo Credit: Michael Jackson in 1988 by Zoran Veselinovic / CC by 4.0

Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris alleges that a group of lawyers are exploiting a lack of estate oversight to steal money from her late father.

Paris Jackson, 27, has filed a legal motion accusing a “highly compensated” group of lawyers of “skimming money” from her late father Michael Jackson’s estate. And this isn’t the first time Paris has raised concerns over “irregular payments” made by the estate. Now, she has filed a motion requesting a judge to intervene.

Paris, along with her brothers Prince and Bigi, are beneficiaries of their father’s estate following his death in 2009. Since his passing, Jackson’s estate has been overseen by two executors: attorney John Branca and A&R executive John McClain. According to legal documents, Paris is asking Branca and McClain to submit paperwork related to legal fees they requested be paid to third-party firms between 2019 and 2023.

“Executors’ profound delay in seeking Court approval for extraordinary fees and costs, and lack of oversight with regard to large non-contractual payments to Counsel bestowed upon themselves, is concerning,” the motion states.

“The five-year and growing lag inherently prejudices the ability of the Court and the beneficiaries to provide effective oversight. But the fact that this delay obscured the payment of non-contractual $125,000 and $250,000 gifts to Counsel is even more troubling,” Paris’ lawyers continue.

“No client would give such gifts to her lawyers out of her own pocket. Worse still, Counsel made the payments knowing that the beneficiaries long ago objected to the practice, and were less than forthcoming in their belated disclosures […] At a minimum, these gratuities, and counsel’s preposterous declarations in support of them, raise red flags.”

Meanwhile, an attorney for the estate, Jonathan Steinsapir, released a statement pushing back against the allegations. “The historic turnaround and success of the Estate of Michael Jackson on behalf of his children speaks for itself. The Estate’s executors’ business judgment has generated billions of dollars for Michael’s children, and they have used that same business judgment to determine fair compensation for a world-class legal team that helped them achieve these unprecedented results.”

“The claims made by this new set of attorneys for [Paris]—who have no meaningful experience representing clients in the entertainment industry—are both baseless and defamatory,” Steinsapir’s statement continues. “We are confident that the Court will reject them outright and will again approve the estate’s accountings as it has done numerous times over the last sixteen years.”

News of the motion filed by Jackson’s daughter comes less than a month after executors of the late King of Pop’s estate revealed they have had to deal with “issues” related to one of Jackson’s ex-wives. This, their lawyers claim, was the reason behind some of the legal fees referred to in Paris Jackson’s motion.