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Jacko business advisor talks to AP

By | Published on Monday 6 July 2009

With speculation about Michael Jackson’s finances continuing, the man seemingly at the heart of the singer’s business affairs for the last eighteen months of his life has spoken to the Associated Press, telling the news agency Jackson had asked him to comment should anything like this happen, to give media an insight into the “real Jacko”.

Dr Tohme Tohme (yes, the same name twice, it’s not so unusual in some parts of the world) says he was brought into help with Jacko’s business affairs about eighteen months ago during one of the singer’s previously reported financial crises. It was Jermaine Jackson who got him involved, he being concerned his brother was about to lose his precious Neverland ranch.

Tohme recalled to the AP: “I saw how kind he [Jacko] was and what a wonderful human being. I saw him with his children and I had never seen a better father … I decided to do what I could to help him”.

Calling in personal favours, Tohme secured new financial partners to keep Neverland from being sold, and started restructuring the singer’s affairs and negotiating business deals that would bring in new revenues and help safeguard the future of both Jacko and his children. That included deals for a Jacko-themed Broadway show, an animated version of ‘Thriller’, a new fashion line and the big deal with AEG that led to the O2 residency that was due to kick off this month. He was also hoping to renegotiate the deals around Jackson’s biggest asset, his half of the Sony/ATV music publishing company, and the company that controlled Jacko’s own creative assets.

There has been speculation about Tohme’s “shady” past and his motives for involving himself in Jackson’s affairs, and at one point he was linked to the Nation Of Islam organisation said to be involving itself in Jacko’s life. But Tohme says that there is nothing dodgy about his past business ventures, he just chooses to not make his life especially public.

As for his role in Jackson’s finances, he says he got involved out of respect for the singer, adding that it was his job to keep the really shady dealers out of the singer’s business affairs. That, he said, included cutting off some members of Nation Of Islam, an organisation with which, he says, he had no personal links or contact. He concludes: “I was trying to do what we could to maximise his profits and minimise spending. I wanted to find a way to reel in all the loans he had. We had an agreement. I would never interfere with his creative decisions and he wouldn’t interfere with my business decisions”.

Tohme backs up claims made by AEG regarding the proposed O2 residency, ie that the singer was both fit enough for and excited about the shows, adding that Jackson was on good form the last time he saw him the day before his death.

Finally, asked about those aforementioned proposals to bury Jackson at Neverland, Tohme admitted that he was in favour of the proposal. Of course the investment firm who hold the mortgage on the property, who are also in favour of Jackson being laid to rest there, were brought into Jackson’s affairs by Tohme, so his support for the Neverland burial proposal is no surprise.

But he admits that some in the Jackson family are not currently in favour of the proposal, though adds that he hopes to change the singer’s mother’s mind on the matter, adding: “He deserves to be buried in the wonderful world he created”. Jacko, he says, often talked about creating “a special place ten times bigger than Graceland”, adding: “He wanted to be remembered as a great human being and he wanted to create as many happy places for the children of the world as he could”.



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