9/27/2010

MJ Estate Creditor Claims Updates

As the media reported, the Estate of MJ filed information on a Los Angeles court about how they performed in the first year of MJ's death. Below you may see an overview of the creditor claim updates.

The Estate notified the court on December 22, 2009 that creditor claims might be filed no later then February 22, 2010. Some claims has been filed later, but in total they received 65 claims.

30 of the claims has been settled for about $4 million. 4 of the craziest claims has been rejected by the Estate. 5 claims are on court and will be settled very soon.

The rest of the claims, it's status and the amounts can be found under:

No actions taken on the Esate's part:
Adean Wells King - $180.000 - No action taken
Atkins Thomson Solicitors - $209.000 - No action taken
Bradley Buxer - $48.000 - No action taken
Cannon & Company CPA's, LLP - $56.000 - No action taken
Craig A. Johnson - $374.000 - No action taken
Diane Simmons Williams - $60.000 - No action taken
Dr. Arnold Klein - $58.000 - No action taken
Francise Tax Board - $1.647 - No action taken
Genesis Group International - $4.600.000 - No action taken
Intermedia Productions Ltd. - $1.000.000 - No action taken
Kleinberg Lopez Lange Cuddy & Klein LLP - $628.000 - No action taken
LaVelle Smith Jr. - $144.500 - No action taken
Michael Boddicker - $400.000 - No action taken
Sharad Chandra Patel - $1.000.000 - No action taken
Sidney Lanier - $3.000.000 - No action taken
Teresa Cross - $42.000 - No action taken
Tohme Tohme - $2.300.000 - No action taken
Universal Music Publishing Group - $3.000 - No action taken
Van Alexander - $70.000 - No action taken
William Bone - undetermined - No action taken

Rejected by the Estate, the other party must respond in a given time frame:
Claire McMillan - $2.000.000 - Rejected
Erle Bonner - $1.109.000.000 - Rejected
Malachi Jackson - undetermined - Rejected
Nona Paris Lola Jackson - undetermined - Rejected

The case is on court:
Iglesias Aner - $234.000 - No action taken, lawsuit filed
John Landis - $300.000 - Allowed in part, settlement negotiations ongoing
Jose Freddie Vallejos - $3.300.000 - Rejected, lawsuit filed
Jurgen Bachus - $5.000.000 - Settlement negotiations ongoing
Levitsky Productions Inc. - $1.000.000 - Settlement negotiations ongoing
Nederlander Presentations Inc. - undetermined - Filed lawsuit
Richard Lapointe - $5.000.000 - Rejected, filed lawsuit
Steven Echols - $260.000 - Filed lawsuit, settlement negotiations ongoing
Stinky Films Inc. - $1.000.000 - No action taken, filed lawsuit
Ola Ray - undetermined - Settlement negotiations ongoing

9/19/2010

New Official MJ Items

One of the blog readers sent me information about a licensing agreement between Continental Accessory Corp. and Bravado. Based on this agreement Continental released a series of MJ merchandises this year, that you all can check here:

http://continentalacsry.com/index.php/brands/fashion-licensed
http://continentalacsry.com/index.php/licensed-products

9/18/2010

New MJ Album

I have been asked about if there are any new MJ albums in the near future. At the moment I have no direct connection to Sony, because of this I can rely on the Estate announcement from this Summer.

I did a research on the issue:

- None of the Sony websites (including international ones) say anything about any new MJ material. That doesn't mean anything.

- Neither any of the major retailers website lists any new MJ material. This doesn't mean anything again, new titles can be added easily.

- What's very promising: the Estate is visibly busy with registering and taking care of unrelated MJ materials within different organisations. Below you may find a list of these activities:

Unreleased tracks from 2008-2009 are copyrighted by his Estate. Includes works with Bradley Buxler and Michael Durham: I Was The Loser, Adore You, Boy No, Changes, Days In Gloucestershire, Don't Be Messin', Hollywood, I Am A Loser, Innocent Man, Jungle, Just Remember, Light The Way, Neverland Landing, Pray For Peace, Rocker, Thank Heaven, World Of Candy, 11pm, Bottom Of My Heart, Butter Funk, Children's Hour, Green Hornet Groove, I Love You More, King Tutankhamun, Lovin You, Pajamas, Photographs, Photographs 2 (Instrumental) , Pray For Peace (Instrumental), Shut Up And Dance, That (Instrumental), Think Twice (Instrumental), Walk Away (Instrumental), You Are There (Instrumental), MJ / BB Orchestral Idea #1., MJ / BB Orchestral Idea #3., MJ / BB Orchestral Idea #2., Brad Loop 3700, Brad Loop 3.3.7 MJ, Michael's Affirmation (Instrumental).

Unreleased tracks from 2007 are copyrighted by his Estate. Includes works with Eddie Cascio, the so called "MJ Song Books".

Unreleased tracks registered recently with BMI: Doing Dirty (Victory era), Man In Black (Dangerous era), Verdict (Dangerous era), Remember This Night (Thriller era), She Got It (Dangerous era), Seven Digits (Dangerous era), Who Do You Know (Thriller era), Michaelmania, Pressure (Dangerous era), Just Feel It (Victory era).

Unreleased tracks recently released with ASCAP: The Pain (Invinclible era), The World Is No Church (Invincible era), Seduction (Invincible era).


In my opinion new MJ materials will arrive this Winter.

9/11/2010

MJ Mobile Has Been Released In Japan

An unofficial MJ mobile has been recently released in Japan. This release is the part of the "Michael Jackson Asia Rights Story" I published here (http://lesliemjhu.blogspot.com/2010/07/michael-jackson-asia-rights-story.html).

The mobile can be checked here: http://mobile-mj.com

The registration will start early September with the first loads of mobiles arriving later that month. The mobiles will include an MJ biography, the "Ghost" movie, eBooks, photos

And again: this is unofficial, has nothing to do with MJ or his Estate.

9/06/2010

My E-mail Address and QA Session

Because of the number of comments and questions I receive, I set up an e-mail address where you may send your enquires: lesliemjhu@gmail.com

Answering some of the questions:

- Sony/ATV and MiJac deal renewal means according to my information: MJ-ATV Publishing Trust (MJ 50% share in Sony/ATV Music Publishing) is under New Horizont Trust II. until December 10, 2012. MJ Publishing Trust (MiJac catalouge mostly) in uder New Horizon Trust III. until the same time. MJ set up these new trusts to get more money against his publishing assets. NHT II's debts are handled by Wells Fargo Bank, NHT III's debts by HSBC Bank and Plainfield Gaming II. Inc. The Estate already refinanced NHT III's debts (MiJac) as it's been reported in the media. These debts might be paid out around late next year, but no later then the end of 2012. What I knew about the refinancing of NHT II's debts (Sony/ATV) was that no later then September 27, 2010 the Estate has to pay off John Branca, because of he sold his share in the company. As I can remember it was like $20 million. This summer Estate sources confirmed in the media, that they are in negoitations about getting better terms for a possible renewal of the deal later this year. This all means that the Estate is paying back money on other dates and other installations.

- MiJac public performance agreement renewal: I read in a court paper that last November the Estate sat down with all the companies responsible for collecting MJ's public performance royalties and inked a better deal for the Estate. That included BMI (as for MJ's solo songs) and Warner (as for the MiJac catalouge) amongst others.

- The Estate paying off debts: As to my best knowledge, neither MJ or his Estate used the publishing assets against any loan we didn't knew about. That's what official papers says as well. The amount used to be said between $270-$320 million. According to an Estate leaked information this Summer, the MiJac loan will be repaid no later than the end of 2011. That means $70 million off. We have no official information on the Sony/ATV loan. What we know is that according to an agreement made in December, 2005 MJ agreed to repay the loans from the catalouge's yearly incomes. Back then it meant like $40 million annually. What we know for sure, that MJ relied on different people in the last 4 years of his life in financial matters. There is no way that he would live off $40 million every year while being the guest of the Bahrain, Oman royal families, living with a family in New Jersey and lately using the money from the AEG deal. According to some information the Sony/ATV incomes were splitted between him and the banks like $10 and $30 millions. If this is true, then since 2005 MJ and his Estate had to pay off like $120 million of the debts, leaving like $80 million unpaid. But. In 2007 Sony/ATV bought the Famous Music catalouge for $400 million. According to sources, the original 1995 Sony-MJ agreement said that MJ has to pay half of the cost of any such purchases. This is why MJ's Sony/ATV debt might be still around $280 million.


As to Mr. Backerman: please send me a message to lesliemjhu@gmail.com, I would be happy to clarify that old post anytime (I don't have your e-mail address).

9/04/2010

Joesph Jackson vs. Conrad Murray

I haven't covered Joe Jackson's case against MJ's one time doctor, Dr. Conrad Murray. Below you may read some interesting parts of the case:

- Joe believes that besides Murray there are other persons or business entities who are responsible for MJ's death. And he will file lawsuits against them as soon as he gathers enough information. No more details about this.

- According to his information, Murray met with MJ in Las Vegas in 2006 and first threated MJ's kids who were suffering from colds and flu.

- After that Murray and the entities he was a president or owner offered MJ certain medical services as per his personal needs.

- On May 3, 2009 the organisers of MJ's then planned tour and Murray entered into a written agreement about that Murray will provide these medical services as part of the "This Is It" world tour. What's interesting: the agreement covered states of Texas where the world tour might visit, besides California and Nevada.

- It's interesting that according to Joe's filings, AEG complained to MJ the same day that he is not participating the show preparations. They believed MJ is under the influence of different drugs he might get from Dr. Arnold Klein, another doctor of MJ's. AEG demanded to stop visiting Dr. Klein and instead using Dr. Murray's services. AEG promised 150.000 dollars per a month for Murray to render his services and wean MJ off the medications they believed MJ was in dependence.

- On May 12, 2009 Murray's office bought the first set of Propofol's for MJ.

- It was AEG who promised to Murray to provide him with the needed equipments and a nurse for MJ. Murray sent an e-mail to AEG on May 28, 2009 impatiently demanding for the equipments they agreed on.

- On June 18, 2009 MJ did not appear on the rehearsal as he should have. The very same day AEG's agents traveled to MJ's house and they said they were there for a "drug intervention". They demanded MJ not to attend Dr. Klein's office again, because they thought the drugs MJ got from Dr. Klein made him sleepy and prevented him from rehearsing. They threated MJ: if he misses out any further rehearsals, they will stop the show preparations, stop paying for MJ's house and all expenses. There would be lawsuits and his career will be over.

- According to Joe, MJ appearad the same day in the Forum seemingly furious. He "stormed" into the building visibly upset. Murray was there as well for AEG's direction.

- After another night when Murray gave different medications to MJ to make him sleep, MJ appeared in the Forum on June 19, 2009. According to Joe's information he seemed drugged and disoriented.

- In the following days MJ didn't have to appear for rehearsals. The next time he was with the team was on June 23, 2009 in the Staples Center. MJ was still disoriented and freezing cold according to some sources. His assistants had to give him several shorts to wear under his long heavy coat because he was so cold. As well he had to have a heater at rehearsals.

- When the paramedics arrived to the UCLA hospital, Murray identified MJ under the name "Soule Shaun".

- According to Joe's version of the story, MJ was confused, easily frightened, unable to remember, obsessive, and disoriented in May and June in the year of his death. He is refering to the concert footages, where MJ is always fully clothed in the summer, while others wore scant clothing.

Vintage Pop Media vs. MichaelJacksonCasino.com Case Dismissed

On August 31, 2010 the Judge presiding in the case said the followings: "Plaintiff’s complaint appears to relate to what has been called the mortgage crisis in our country. Many similar complaints have been filed in this Court. Based on what has
occurred in those cases, the Court is concerned that (1) all parties to the case receive a proper review of their claims in court, (2) no party is forced to spend unnecessary time
and expense on this case, and (3) there is compliance with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, including Rule 11(b). The Court orders the following to achieve these goals and to avoid an early, unfair dismissal with prejudice."

Three day later Vintage Pop Media asked for a dismissal in the case. Now say if this case was good for anything but getting your 15 minutes of fame.