A former advisor to Michael Jackson is suing the singer for $64 million over allegations of breach of contract and fraud.
Dieter Wiesner claims he was hired by Jackson as his personal manager in 2002, but was later fired, shortly after the most recent child abuse allegations were made against the singer. Wiesner claims he was never paid for much of his work helping Jackson manage his struggling finances, but recouping those payments is just one part of the new lawsuit.
Wiesner also claims Jackson sold him, for millions of dollars, the rights to make and sell Michael Jackson merchandise. However, Wiesner subsequently found out that Jackson had previously sold those rights to another party, who then sued Wiesner when he began to develop Jackson based products. The lawsuit then claims that Jackson refused to co-operate once it became apparent the merchandising rights Wiesner had bought were fraudulent.
Jackson, who is, of course, currently living in Bahrain, is yet to comment on the new lawsuit. No comment either on allegations that Jacko once left Weisner an answer phone message containing anti-Semitic remarks. Weisner's lawyer Howard King has released a number of recorded messages left by Jacko on Weisner's answer-phone, all of which will be used as evidence in the lawsuit. In one of those messages, played earlier this week by ABC's Good Morning America show, Jackson reportedly says: "They suck them like leeches. ... They start out the most popular person in the world, make a lot of money, big house, cars and everything and end up penniless. It's a conspiracy. The Jews do it on purpose."
That has angered America's Anti-Defamation League who are calling on Jackson to make a public apology for the comments. The campaigning group's director, Abraham H Foxman, told reporters: "Michael Jackson has an anti-Semitic streak and hasn't learned from his past mistakes. It seems every time he has a problem in his life, he blames it on Jews."
The past mistake Foxman refers to is most likely a lyric from his 1995 song 'They Don't Care About Us' which angered the Jewish community. The original version of that track contained the line: "Jew me, sue me, everybody do me, kick me". At the time Jackson said the lyrics were meant to demonstrate the "hatefulness of racism, anti-Semitism and stereotyping" and he agreed to change them to avoid any confusion.
King said he had released the answer phone messages, including those containing seemingly anti-Semitic remarks, to stop Jackson from "appearing sympathetic in court".