Michael Jackson Foundation Sues Former Manager Tohme R. Tohme

On Friday, the Michael Jackson Foundation filed a lawsuit against Michael’s former manager, Mr. Tohme R. Tohme. Tohme was Michael’s manager from January 2008 to March 2009, and after Frank Delio returned, Michael’s old manager was dismissed.

The accusation against Tohme is that in the final years of Michael Jackson’s life, he encouraged Michael to sign unreasonable contracts for his own personal benefit.

The Foundation also said that Tohme had mistakenly donated Michael’s artworks to the painter artist Brett Livingston Strong. (Read more)

Taking out loans by putting the Neverland ranch as collateral, and the London concert contracts that were set to provide Tohme with $100,000 per month, are among the accusations against him. During the Neverland case, Tohme forced Michael to pay him $2.4 million, only so that he could introduce the company Colony Capital to Michael. In addition to these two cases, there are other financial contracts in which Tohme made a great deal of profit.

In 2009, Michael signed a contract for the sale of Neverland’s household items with the Julien’s auction house. After some time, Michael presented a lawsuit to the court and sued Darren Julien, canceling the deal. No reason for this was stated by either side, but fans believed that Tohme had arranged the terms of this auction without considering Michael’s situation, and that after Michael became aware of it, he sought to void the contract. For example, all of Neverland’s ranch assets — including artworks, awards and medals, clothes, and other valuable items — were priced for sale, even though Michael had never intended to sell such assets. Darren Julien immediately complied with Michael’s request, and the auction was canceled.

The Foundation’s lawsuit is filed one year later, after Tohme claimed that 15% of the Foundation’s $310 million income should belong to him. In this lawsuit, the Foundation is asking that Michael’s assets be returned along with compensation from Tohme, and that he be required to turn over financial details. The Foundation says that Tohme has no share in the income earned after Michael’s death.

Howard Weitzman, the Foundation’s lawyer, said in an official statement:

“The Michael Jackson Foundation is suing Tohme for mismanagement during the short period he worked for Michael. We expect that Mr. Tohme will also sue the Foundation in return. We believe that Mr. Tohme’s claims are baseless and incorrect, and we are waiting for this matter to be examined in court.”

Source: eMJey.com / NY Daily / MJ Online Team