{"id":307042,"date":"2026-02-28T21:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T21:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/307042\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T21:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T21:19:07","slug":"michael-jackson-estate-sued-for-child-trafficking-by-siblings-alleging-more-than-decade-of-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/307042\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jackson estate sued for child trafficking by siblings alleging more than decade of abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Jackson<\/a>\u2018s estate has been sued for child trafficking by three siblings who claim the musician abused them when they were minors.<\/p>\n

The complaint was filed on Friday (February 27) in federal court in Los Angeles by siblings Frank, Dominic, Marie-Nicole, and Aldo Cascio.<\/p>\n

It comes a month after they appeared in a Beverly Hills courthouse amid a related effort to void a financial settlement with Jackson\u2019s estate that they described as \u201can unlawful agreement to silence victims of childhood sexual abuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge withheld a final ruling and set a follow-up hearing for March 5.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael Jackson was a serial child predator who, over the course of more than a decade, drugged, raped, and sexually assaulted each of the plaintiffs, beginning when some were as young as seven or eight,\u201d the lawsuit states, per Rolling Stone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The filing alleges that the abuse occurred over extended periods in multiple locations worldwide, including during visits when Jackson and his children stayed at the siblings\u2019 family home.<\/p>\n

The siblings allege that Jackson \u201cgroomed and brainwashed\u201d them using his wealth, celebrity status, and network of employees and advisers. The lawsuit claims that Jackson met them through their father, who worked at a luxury hotel Jackson frequently visited.<\/p>\n

They claim that Jackson gained the family\u2019s trust with gifts, declarations of affection and sustained attention, before allegedly isolating the children from responsible adults, giving them drugs and alcohol, exposing them to pornography, and then abusing them individually.<\/p>\n

Martin Singer, a lawyer for Jackson\u2019s estate, has described the lawsuit as a \u201cdesperate money grab\u201d, saying that the siblings \u201chave hopped on the bandwagon with their brother Frank, who is already being sued in arbitration for civil extortion\u201d.<\/p>\n

Singer added: \u201cThe family staunchly defended Michael Jackson for more than 25 years, attesting to his innocence of inappropriate conduct.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis new court filing is a transparent forum-shopping tactic in their scheme to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars from Michael\u2019s estate and companies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Cascio family previously referred to themselves as Jackson\u2019s \u201csecond family\u201d in interviews and were among his defenders during his criminal trial, which ended with an acquittal on charges of child sex abuse in 2005.<\/p>\n

After Jackson\u2019s death in 2009, Wade Robson, a choreographer and director, and James Safechuck, a writer, actor, and director, stepped forward with claims that Jackson molested them in the 1980s and 1990s, sometimes during overnight stays at his Neverland Ranch.<\/p>\n

Back in 2019, HBO produced Leaving Neverland<\/a>, a two-part documentary surrounding the allegations from Robson and Safechuck. According to the Cascio siblings, the documentary led them to reckon with and share their experiences as well.<\/p>\n

In his statement, Singer said the siblings saw \u201cthe estate\u2019s financial success growing\u201d and \u201cthreatened to go public with heinous accusations that completely contradicted their previous statements defending Michael unless his estate paid staggering sums of money,\u201d per Rolling Stone.<\/p>\n

The new lawsuit, signed by lawyer Howard King on behalf of the siblings, includes claims for child sex trafficking, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract, negligent hiring, and fraud. It\u2019s seeking a trial to determine compensatory and punitive damages.<\/p>\n

In 1993, Evan Chandler, a dentist and screenwriter based in Los Angeles, accused Jackson of sexually abusing his 13-year-old son Jordan, which he denied. The case was concluded when the two parties reached a financial settlement in 1994.<\/p>\n

Jackson\u2019s estate has continuously denied all allegations of sexual abuse made against him.<\/p>\n

Last year, Reed\u00a0slammed an upcoming Michael Jackson biopic as \u201cstartlingly disingenuous\u201d<\/a>, claiming it discredits Robson and Safechuck\u2019s experiences with the singer.<\/p>\n

Titled simply\u00a0Michael<\/a>, the film is\u00a0currently scheduled to release in April.<\/a> It is directed by Antoine Fuqua, with Michael\u2019s real-life nephew Jaafar Jackson taking on the title role<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The release of the film was delayed due\u00a0to\u00a0reports that the final act had to be shot again due to an unsanctioned inclusion of the 1993 Jordan Chandler case<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For more help, advice or more information regarding sexual harassment, assault and rape in the UK, visit the\u00a0Rape Crisis charity website<\/a>. In the US, visit\u00a0RAINN.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Jackson\u2018s estate has been sued for child trafficking by three siblings who claim the musician abused them…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,156,111,139,69,38],"class_list":["post-307042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}