Michael Jackson’s daughter, Paris Jackson, is asking a Los Angeles judge to order her late father’s estate to release $600 million to a trust meant to benefit her and her brothers.
Ms. Jackson, 28, argued that the trust has been unfunded more than 17 years after her father’s 2009 death, according to an Oct. 29 court filing reviewed by People magazine.
Her attorneys cite more than $1 billion in cash generated before taxes and expenses from the 2018 sale of the estate’s EMI Music Publishing interest, the 2020 sale of the Neverland Ranch and a 2023 Sony deal, as well as an estate accounting showing about $850 million in cash and cash equivalents as of December 2024.
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The estate said it cannot fully fund the trusts until legal matters are resolved, including IRS litigation over $700 million in taxes and penalties, calling claims that it has withheld or reduced payments “a complete fabrication.”
The request follows a May ruling in which a Los Angeles judge ruled in favor of Ms. Jackson and ordered that $625,000 in bonus payments the executors, Branca and John McClain, made to outside law firms in 2018 be returned to the estate.
Jackson estate attorneys said they disagreed with the decision but respected it, noting the payments did not go to the executors themselves.
“The Estate is once again deflecting from its own incompetence. Paris called for the trust to be partially funded, something Mr. Branca had the ability and obligation to do long ago. After years of delay, Paris had no choice but to step in herself,” a spokesperson for Ms. Jackson told People.
A judge is scheduled to hear Ms. Jackson’s request on Dec. 4.
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