Paris Jackson has advanced her ongoing legal dispute with the executors of the Estate of Michael Jackson following an adverse ruling issued against her last week.
On Tuesday, the 27-year-old beneficiary filed an objection in the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, challenging the Estate’s delayed submission of its accounting for the 2021 calendar year. According to materials referenced by the Daily Mail, Ms. Jackson asserted that she and her siblings—Prince Jackson, 28, and Bigi Jackson, 23—did not receive the relevant accounting information until September of this year, approximately four years after it should have been provided.
In addition to objecting to the four-year delay, Ms. Jackson raised concerns regarding what she described as “enormous sums of cash” allegedly left uninvested during that period by executors John Branca and John McClain. She further objected to their involvement in what she characterized as speculative and high-risk entertainment ventures, alleging that such projects were undertaken despite the executors’ purported lack of relevant expertise. The filing additionally expresses concern about compensation paid to the executors, which Ms. Jackson claims significantly exceeded distributions made to her and other beneficiaries.
Ms. Jackson asserted that she is “increasingly concerned the Estate has become the vehicle for John Branca to enrich and aggrandize himself, rather than serve the beneficiaries’ best interests and steadfastly preserve her father’s legacy.” She also questioned whether Mr. Branca’s alleged inexperience in film production may have contributed to substantial reshoot expenditures—amounting to tens of millions of dollars—for an upcoming biographical film about Michael Jackson.
According to the Daily Mail, representatives for Ms. Jackson and for executors Branca and McClain were contacted for comment but did not provide an immediate response. In a statement to People, a source described as being close to the Estate contended that Ms. Jackson’s filing constituted “another misguided attempt by Paris Jackson’s attorneys to provide themselves cover,” adding that her counsel had recently lost a case against the Estate and had been ordered to pay the Estate’s attorneys’ fees. The source further asserted that “all the beneficiaries are well taken care of by the Estate” and characterized the filing as “a weak attempt to change the narrative of their loss.”
Ms. Jackson’s objection claims that the executors and Mr. Branca’s law firm received in excess of $10 million in compensation for 2021, allegedly more than twice the amount distributed to any beneficiary as part of the family allowance. The filing further alleges that the executors have collectively received over $148 million in compensation between 2009 and 2021. Estate counsel were reportedly paid $4.5 million in 2021, in addition to approximately $750,000 in unapproved “bonus” payments.
Ms. Jackson also objected to the Estate’s purported failure to invest approximately $464 million in cash assets, alleging that the funds yielded an interest rate of only 0.1 percent during the relevant period.#newsafro_
