{"id":47558,"date":"2025-08-05T18:06:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T18:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/47558\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T18:06:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T18:06:12","slug":"michael-jacksons-daughter-paris-alleges-lawyers-are-skimming-money-from-his-estate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/47558\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jackson\u2019s daughter Paris alleges lawyers are \u2018skimming money\u2019 from his estate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 cKWiEj\">From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 cKWiEj\">At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 cKWiEj\">The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n<p>Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/music\/news\/michael-jackson-paris-estate-payments-b2786794.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Jackson\u2019s daughter Paris<\/a> has filed a new legal motion accusing a \u201cclosely-knit, highly-compensated\u201d group of lawyers of exploiting a lack of oversight <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/music\/news\/michael-jackson-paris-estate-payments-b2786794.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cto skim money\u201d from her late father\u2019s estate.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Paris Jackson, 27, is one of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/music\/news\/michael-jackson-katherine-sony-sale-b2600500.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the beneficiaries of her father\u2019s estate<\/a> along with her brothers Prince and Bigi. Michael Jackson <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/obituaries\/michael-jackson-singer-whose-personal-troubles-overshadowed-his-status-as-one-of-pop-s-greatest-performers-1721571.html\">died in 2009 at the age of 50.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>In the last few months, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/music\/news\/michael-jackson-paris-estate-payments-b2786794.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paris has raised several concerns about \u201cirregular payments\u201d made by the estate.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now, according to legal documents obtained by <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usmagazine.com\/celebrity-news\/news\/paris-jackson-accuses-lawyers-of-skimming-money-from-mjs-estate-excl\/\">Us Magazine<\/a>, Paris has filed a motion requesting a judge intervene.<\/p>\n<p>Since Jackson\u2019s death, his estate has been overseen by two executors, attorney John Branca and A&amp;R executive John McClain.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/music\/news\/michael-jackson-paris-estate-payments-b2786794.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/obituaries\/michael-jackson-singer-whose-personal-troubles-overshadowed-his-status-as-one-of-pop-s-greatest-performers-1721571.html\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/music\/news\/michael-jackson-paris-estate-payments-b2786794.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/a>Paris is asking Branca and McClain to submit paperwork related to legal fees that they requested be paid to third-party firms between 2019 and 2023.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/MixCollage-10-Jul-2025-12-53-PM-7181.jpg\"  loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Paris Jackson (right) has allegedly found irregularities in payments made by her father Michael's estate\" class=\"sc-1mc30lb-0 ggpMaE\"\/>Paris Jackson (right) has allegedly found irregularities in payments made by her father Michael&#8217;s estate (Getty)<\/p>\n<p>The motion raises concerns about the amount of time it has taken executors to seek approval for various fees, stating: \u201cExecutors\u2019 profound delay in seeking Court approval for extraordinary fees and costs, and lack of oversight with regard to large non-contractual payments Counsel bestowed upon themselves, is concerning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It continues: \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo 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&#8230; at a minimum, these gratuities, and counsel\u2019s preposterous declarations in support of them, raise red flags.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The motion alleges, in summary, that: \u201cAs painful as it is to say in print, the present records suggest a group of closely-knit, highly-compensated lawyers is exploiting Executors\u2019 lack of oversight to skim money from the Estate, in plain view.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo make matters worse, payment of these gifts has been masked by the fact that Executors\u2019 Counsel are only now requesting approval of fees from 2018, with no reasonable explanation for the delay.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In response, Jonathan Steinsapir, an attorney for the estate, pushed back against the claims. <\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Steinsapir said: \u201cThe historic turnaround and success of the Estate of Michael Jackson on behalf of his children speaks for itself.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Estate\u2019s executors\u2019 business judgment has generated billions of dollars for Michael\u2019s 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, while also fighting back against baseless attacks against Michael by opportunists seeking to enrich themselves at the expense of the estate and its beneficiaries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe claims made by this new set of attorneys for [Paris] \u2014who have no meaningful experience representing clients in the entertainment industry \u2014 are both baseless and defamatory. We are confident that the Court will reject them outright and will again approve the estate\u2019s accountings as it has done numerous times over the last sixteen years.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last month it emerged that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/arts-entertainment\/music\/news\/michael-jackson-estate-ex-wife-daughter-paris-b2789711.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the estate lawyer\u2019s claimed some of the legal fees were due to \u201cissues\u201d with one of Jackson\u2019s ex-wives.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47559,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-47558","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47558\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}