Court hears Jackson was in debt, faced cash crisis:
O’Bryan, who pored over Jackson’s financial records, said the entertainer was more than $230 million in debt in February 2003. At the time, he said, Jackson was spending $20 million to $30 million more than he was bringing in per year.His lavish lifestyle was made possible in part by a $200 million loan from Bank of America secured by Jackson’s stake in a valuable music catalog that included Beatles songs. Jackson owns the music in a joint venture with Japan’s
Sony Corp known as Sony/ATV.A second $70-million loan from Bank of America was secured by Jackson’s stake in his own music catalog, O’Bryan said.
A balance sheet at end-June 2002 showed Jackson with a negative net worth of $285 million, O’Bryan said.
Even before that, Jackson’s accountants had been cautioning that his spending habits were endangering his hold on one of his most valuable assets, his stake in the Sony catalog.
A memo in 2000 showed Jackson had income of $11.5 million in the prior year but that was swamped by more than $20 million in expenses, including $5 million for legal costs and other services, $5 million to run Neverland and $7.5 million of personal spending, O’Bryan said.