Michael Jackson Scores Big In Round 1 of the Schaffel Lawsuit and Awaits Round 2 for Accounting

A jury of 6 women and 6 men turned back F. Marc Schaffel’s claims against Michael Jackson today, that Mr. Jackson owed him countless millions of dollars.

In the action, Mr. Schaffel first sought $6 million…$4 million… $3.2million, $2 million, and finally $1.5million.

In round 1, the jury awarded Mr. Schaffel $900,000. However, the jury also awarded Mr. Jackson $200,000, plus interest, for Mr. Schaffel’s fraud, conversion and breach of fiduciary duty.

Says Tom Mundell, Lead Defense Counsel, “This was a great result for Michael. The judge divided the trial into two phases. In this first phase, the jury heard all of Schaffel’s claims and one of Michael’s claims. In about two weeks, the judge will hear testimony on the rest of Michael’s claims against Schaffel.

The value of Michael’s remaining claims exceeds the small net amount in Schaffel’s favour from Phase 1 of the trial, and we are confident that when Phase 2 is concluded, the overall judgment will be in Michael’s favour.”

Says L. Londell McMillan, General Counsel to Mr. Jackson, “It’s a new day for Michael Jackson. We were unwilling to pay one penny more than the amount Schaffel was owed, and the verdict proved successful. This lawsuit represents the beginning of a new approach and direction in the business of Michael Jackson.”

Source: Raymone Bain

By LINDA DEUTSCH
AP Special Correspondent

In a split decision Friday, a civil court jury awarded a former Michael Jackson adviser $900,000 - far less than he claimed in the money dispute - and awarded the pop star $200,000 in his cross-complaint.

F. Marc Schaffel originally sued for $3.8 million, but his claims were later reduced to $1.6 million, and his attorney ultimately asked the jury for $1.4 million in unpaid loans and expenses before deliberations began Thursday.

Jackson’s attorney had said Schaffel owed the pop star $660,000.

Earlier in the day, the jury asked several questions and sought read back of testimony.

In the civil suit, in which only nine of the 12 jurors have to agree on a verdict, one question from the panel was, “Do all 12 have to be accounted for, or can some abstain?”

Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Connor sent the jurors a message that some could abstain from voting.

The jurors also asked if they could award damages significantly different than claimed by the parties in the legal action. They were told they could do so but had to follow jury instructions on the law.

The panel also asked to hear the court reporter read back testimony from Schaffel on how much he claimed was due to him from his business relationship with Jackson.

Source: Associated Press

The jury in a financial dispute between Michael Jackson and his former associate F. Marc Schaffel resumed deliberations for a second day on Friday. They immediately asked several questions and sought read back of testimony.

In the civil suit, in which only nine of the 12 jurors have to agree on a verdict, one question from the panel was: “Do all 12 have to be accounted for, or can some abstain?”

Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Connor conferred with attorneys by phone. Connor sent the jurors a message that some could abstain from voting.

The jurors also asked if they could award damages significantly different than claimed by the parties in the legal action. They were told they could do so but had to follow jury instructions on the law.

The panel of six men and six women also asked to hear the court reporter read back testimony from Schaffel on how much he claims is due to him from his business relationship with Jackson.

Schaffel’s lawyers have given varying amounts sought for his work on two Fox TV specials about Jackson and reimbursements for loans he said he made to the pop star.

At the beginning of the case, attorney Howard King had asked for more than $3 million for his client.
Court rulings reduced that amount to $1.6 million. Then in his final argument, King added together a number of figures and came up with $1.4 million.

Thomas Mundell, Michael Jackson’s attorney, told the jury that Schaffel actually owes the pop star $660,000.
Mundell said the following in his closing statement:
“This is a case about misplaced trust. Here, we have a gentle artist, who despite all his fame and all his money, is lonely. He’s insulated. He brought his passion and his musical genius to the world, making him vulnerable to people who want to take advantage of him.”

The judge has agreed to take up a specific accounting phase of the case that is not being submitted to the jury.

Source: Associated Press

Music icon Quincy Jones has scoffed at enduring criticism he ’sold-out’ to produce Michael Jackson’s hit album THRILLER in 1983.

The jazz great has been dogged by the record’s huge commercial success because many felt he had ditched his musical roots to manufacture pop.

However, speaking at the BBC Jazz Awards in London last night (13 JUL 06), the legendary producer slammed the attack as completely unfounded.

He fumed, “I’ve been accused many times of selling out. Hell, I was playing rhythm + blues before he (Jackson) was born and will do till I die.”

Source: Contact Music

By Linda Deutsch

A bitter money dispute between Michael Jackson and a former associate was placed in the hands of jurors Thursday after the singer’s lawyer told them the plaintiff betrayed the star and urged them to “send him from this courtroom with nothing.”

Attorney Thomas Mundell said F. Marc Schaffel can’t back up claims that he is owed $1.4 million in loans and expenses, but Schaffel’s lawyer argued that jurors must consider that his client’s relationship with the singer existed in “Michael world, not our world.”

“It’s a world where a superstar professes love for Marc Schaffel and entrusts him … Michael world - a world without receipts,” attorney Howard King said in final remarks.

Jackson has countersued, claiming that Schaffel actually owes him $660,000. Mundell said in his closing argument that Schaffel took advantage of a pop star who is “useless in his own business matters.”

King urged jurors to accept circumstantial evidence and testimony from various witnesses about expenditures Schaffel made in the interest of promoting Jackson’s ill-fated Sept. 11 charity record, “What More Can I Give,” and $300,000 for a mysterious trip to South America.

Mundell argued that Schaffel actually pocketed $400,000 from a Japanese company for rights to the charity record, and that he used the money to make a down payment on a house.

King pointed out that Jackson’s lawyers never asked the purpose of the South America trip. “They either know precisely why this money was delivered or they don’t want to know and they don’t want you to know,” he said.

On the stand, Schaffel blurted out that he once was dispatched to help Jackson adopt boys in Brazil, a story Jackson’s defense has denounced as a smear. In Jackson’s 2005 child molestation trial, prosecutors claimed there was a plan to relocate a family making accusations against the pop star and take them to Brazil. The pop star was acquitted of the molestation charges.

Mundell read to jurors a voice mail message to Schaffel in which Jackson said, “Marc, please, please, never let me down. I have been betrayed so much by people. I want us to be friends and I want us to conquer the business world. Be my loyal, loyal, loyal friend.”

Mundell concluded, “Members of the jury, Marc Schaffel was not Mr. Jackson’s loyal friend. I ask you to send him from this courtroom with nothing.”

The judge told the 12 jurors that only nine of them need to agree on any one cause of action for a verdict, but the same nine do not need to agree on each action. The five-page verdict form includes numerous questions the jury must answer relating to Schaffel’s suit and Jackson’s countersuit.

Schaffel initially sued for $3.8 million but the claims were cut to $1.6 million, and on Thursday his attorney asked for $1.4 million.

Source: Associated Press

Debbie Rowe, the former Mrs. Michael Jackson, has sued the pop singer, claiming he has failed to pay her what he promised when the two divorced in 1999.

In the lawsuit, filed July 3 in Los Angeles Superior Court, Rowe seeks an immediate payment of $195,000 for attorney fees and $50,000 in living expenses so that she can continue pursuing her child-custody case against him.

The next court hearing on the matter is slated for July 26.

Rowe is the mother of Jackson’s two children, Prince Michael Joseph Jackson, 9, and Paris-Michael Katherine Jackson, 8. She gave up her parental rights to the children in 2001 but asked a judge to reinstate them in 2003 after she learned of Jackson’s arrest on child molestation charges.

Rowe says in the lawsuit that Jackson stopped making his promised payments to her in October, 2003.

Jackson agreed when they divorced to pay his ex-wife $1 million a year for the first three years after their split and $750,000 annually for six more years. Rowe also received a house in Beverly Hills and a 1998 Ford Explorer. She agreed to visit her children only once every 45 days, according to the lawsuit.

Jackson maintained ownership of his Neverland Ranch and two adjacent properties in Santa Barbara, Calif., other residential and commercial properties, plus a fleet of vehicles that includes two fire trucks, three vintage Rolls Royces, four tractors and nine golf carts.

Source: Associated Press

By Linda Deutsch

Michael Jackson was alternately portrayed as a gullible artist and a calculating businessman during closing arguments in the trial of a lawsuit that accuses the entertainer of failing to pay a former associate more than $1 million.

“Michael Jackson doesn’t pay his bills. Mr. Jackson is a cagey, calculating witness,” said attorney Howard King, who is representing businessman F. Marc Schaffel in his lawsuit against Jackson.

Jackson attorney Thomas Mundell told jurors Schaffel took advantage of the entertainer.

“I don’t see the evil, conniving, puppet master he saw,” he said of King’s depiction of Jackson. “I saw the gentle, easily influenced artist who pays little attention to business matters.”

And while Schaffel said he went uncompensated for his work, Mundell said, “he was living the life of Riley, traveling around the world in private jets.”

“Mr. Schaffel saw Michael Jackson as an opportunity,” Mundell said. “He could do projects for him and become part of the action.”

The case was expected to go to the jury Thursday after Mundell concludes his argument, followed by a rebuttal from King.

During his closing argument, King said he was angry at the focus the defense placed on his client’s past as a producer of gay pornography, calling it irrelevant.

A former Jackson lawyer testified during the trial that Schaffel was fired after Jackson was told of his past as a porn producer.

King also complained that Schaffel was unfairly portrayed as “some sort of parasite hanging on to Mr. Jackson.”

King, who claims the effort to terminate Schaffel in 2001 never actually took effect, said negotiations with lawyers went on and on and that Schaffel actually came back on board to produce such projects as videos about Jackson that aired on Fox.

Among other debts, he said Schaffel was owed $664,000 for the Fox specials and $300,000 that Schaffel said he loaned Jackson when the entertainer told him he needed it delivered to a mysterious “Mr. X” in South America.

In all, he asked jurors to award Schaffel $1,474,280.

Source: Associated Press

By Linda Deutsch

A forensic accountant hired by Michael Jackson’s lawyer testified Wednesday that a former associate who is now suing the singer used money from a Japanese record production company for the down payment on his own $1.9 million home rather than for the business expenses he claimed.

Jan Goren, who showed jurors how he traced millions of dollars through the various bank accounts of F. Marc Schaffel, also said he found no substantiation for a $300,000 payment Schaffel claimed he provided to a mysterious “Mr. X” in South America on Jackson’s behalf.

The testimony was presented as the trial neared the closing arguments phase. Schaffel’s lawsuit claims Jackson owes him $1.6 million for various endeavors he worked on for the pop star.

Jackson’s side has sought to show Schaffel enriched himself at the singer’s expense, outweighing any sums that might actually be owed.

Goren challenged Schaffel’s claim that he received $400,000 from a Japanese company called Music Fighters which was seeking to buy rights to Jackson’s “What More Can I Give,” an ill-fated charity recording intended to raise money for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Schaffel had testified that he split the amount with Jackson, each taking $200,000, but maintained that he used his half to pay business expenses.

Goren said according to his financial detective work that was not true.

He said the $400,000 was wired by Music Fighters on Feb. 27, 2002, to Neverland Valley Entertainment, a company Schaffel started with Jackson, and the next day it was transferred into Schaffel’s personal account.

The accountant noted that in a deposition Schaffel said Jackson was given $200,000 in cash and the rest was kept in the Neverland Valley account to pay bills.

“That did not happen,” said the witness.

“Is there any support that 200,000 (dollars) went out to Mr. Jackson?” asked Thomas Mundell, Jackson’s attorney.

“Nothing,” said the witness.

Goren then used an easel and marker to trace Schaffel’s home purchase, showing the down payment, escrow fees, mortgages and the full price of the home at $1.9 million. He said the source of the down payment was the personal money market account, “and 400,000 that went into that account was Music Fighters money.”

On the purported delivering of $300,000 to “Mr. X” in South America, Goren testified that Schaffel never claimed the amount until this year and “there is no check, no moneys leaving a bank … no bank statements, no ledgers.”

“I have nothing that corroborates it from a documentary point of view,” he said.

He noted that the entry was coded “EFT,” which refers to an electronic fund transfer to another account. But he said the amount was never transferred to or from any account.

“My conclusion on this is it is not a valid claim,” Goren said.

On cross-examination, Schaffel’s attorney, Howard King, challenged some of the accountant’s opinions and asked if he considered testimony by other witnesses who said they knew about some of the disputed transactions.

Goren said he read depositions by Jackson’s business manager, Allan Whitman, but had not questioned him about any of the records.

“You didn’t ask Mr. Whitman to see any of Michael Jackson’s records or Michael Jackson’s tax returns?” asked King.

“I did not,” said Goren.

“Would you have liked to have seen them?” King asked.

“I would like to see Mr. Schaffel’s tax returns,” Goren said.

In spite of King’s claim that he was wrong on some figures, Goren consistently asserted that there were no documents to support some of Schaffel’s claimed expenses.

“Even when there are documents that slightly support it,” he said of one charge, “it fails and it fails miserably.”

Asked why Whitman and others in Jackson’s financial inner circle would have approved some large payments to Schaffel, Goren said, “I think they trusted Mr. Schaffel.”

On the issue of the $300,000, King asked if Goren had seen a receipt from a Hungarian bank.

“No, you can show me,” said Goren.

But it wasn’t until redirect examination by Mundell that the receipt was displayed in court. It showed a withdrawal of $258,000 from a Hungarian bank three years before Schaffel claims he was dispatched to South America on a mission for Jackson.

“Of course this does not influence my opinion,” Goren said. “This transaction took place three years before. So what? How does it end up in South America? I don’t see the connection at all.”

King asked Goren if he ever asked Mundell why no one had asked for the name of the recipient of the purported $300,000 payment. Goren said he had not.

Source: Associated Press

By Linda Deutsch

Michael Jackson’s attorney called a forensic accountant to the stand Tuesday to try to show that a former associate suing the pop star for $1.6 million deceptively juggled money to enrich himself.

Accountant Jan Goren said he was able to trace most of the complicated transactions in a ledger kept by plaintiff F. Marc Schaffel, but could not find that all of the explanations by Schaffel were accurate.

Schaffel has brought a complex case involving sums he claims he’s still owed, including royalties from a charity record project and from two video programs about Jackson that aired on Fox, among others.

Jackson attorney Thomas Mundell has pointed to a lack of receipts in some cases or called witnesses to broadly undermine the credibility of Schaffel’s claims.

Goren, for instance, said a $500,000 transaction Schaffel claimed was a loan to Jackson was not a loan at all.

Schaffel had testified that Jackson was in New York at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and later took a bus across the country, called Schaffel to ask for $500,000 in case he needed to go into hiding with his family, and then stopped at Schaffel’s home to pick up the money. Jackson has denied the story.

Goren said Schaffel did withdraw that amount from a checking account for Neverland Valley Entertainment Co., the business he was in with Jackson, but then deposited the same amount into his personal money market account.

Jurors were shown checks and the transaction documents.

“That check did not go for cash,” said Goren. “It was actually just moved from the cash account to the money market account.”

Mundell also asked the accountant if he identified “any ‘cash to MJ’ transactions that were not bona fide.”

“Yes,” said the accountant, “numerous ones.”

Outside court, Schaffel’s attorney, Howard King, said he would rebut the claims when he cross-examines the accountant and said it would become clear that Schaffel is not seeking reimbursement for any of the alleged loans which are being challenged as deceptive.

“It’s not part of this case,” King said.

Mundell said he was introducing the details to show “a pattern of false claims of loss” by Schaffel.

“We want the jury to look at the pattern of deceit,” he said outside court.

Goren testified that he did an extensive review of all accounts in the case, for which he has been paid $50,000 and is to receive another $25,000 from Jackson’s defense.

The accountant said he came to the conclusion that Schaffel did not get his full 20 percent of the income from the two Fox videos he produced for Jackson, which sold for over $10 million. After offering different ways of calculating the sum, Goren figured Schaffel is probably owed $471,000.

But the defense contends that given the number of deceptive transactions by Schaffel, he is owed nothing.

In another development, Schaffel returned to the witness stand and explained why he backdated checks after he was fired by Jackson in November 2001 and said the amount was lower than the $784,000 reported Monday.

He said he backdated a number of checks totaling $189,000, which he said would cover expenses he felt he was owed by Jackson as part of their original contract.

He said Jackson had agreed to pay for a lease of a residence or commercial property for Schaffel for up to three years for up to $10,000 a month, and that was one of many expenses he felt should be covered after he left Jackson’s employment.

The figure of $784,000 was the sum on a ledger shown to the jury as Mundell questioned Schaffel on Monday about the backdated checks. Addressing confusion, lawyers for both sides said outside court that the shown total was actually a compilation of expenses Schaffel claimed he incurred for Jackson and was due for reimbursement.

There was also more testimony from former Jackson attorney Zia Modabber, who on Monday said he informed the singer of Schaffel’s past as a producer of gay pornography movies, leading to his firing in November 2001, and then sought to stop Schaffel’s continuing efforts to profit from the recording “What More Can I Give.”

The recording was intended raise money for victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Modabber said he tried to convince a Japanese company not to negotiate with Schaffel for rights to the recording, but the company proceeded anyway with efforts to acquire the ill-fated song and stage a concert tour.

Modabber said when he learned of Schaffel’s contacts with the company, Music Fighters, his first concern “was to find out who they were and whether they were legitimate people to negotiate with. I never got to the bottom of it.”

Because of complications involving Schaffel’s firing, he said, the planned release of the record was held up.

“There was a plan to release it for the first year anniversary of 9-11, but they couldn’t get it done, and then it was going to be the second anniversary. And that’s when I lost track of it,” Modabber said.

Source: Associated Press

The classic Michael Jackson song, “Billie Jean,” has been crowned the greatest song of the eighties by British music magazine, Q. Q’s experts named the track from 1982’s awesome THRILLER album the top song of the decade, beating out several top contenders, including New Order, Prince and Kiss.

Source: Q Magazine