Who gets away with seven million dollar gifts? The King, that’s who—or maybe not.
Sources are saying that the former King of Pop, 50 year old Michael Jackson, is tied up in a new lawsuit with Arab Sheik Abdulla bin Hamad Al Khalifa over whether or not a series of payments totaling seven milli were either fronted as gifts or as advances on a recording contract. Safe to say that each party’s side of the story is pretty different, and it totally do matter if they’re black or white.
Al Khalifa’s story goes like this: when Jackson was arrested on child molestation charges in 2003, the sheik (and governor of Bahrain’s Southern Province in Saudi Arabia) hooked up the original man in the mirror with various fat checks for all manner of reasons ranging from Neverland Ranch utility bills to counsel costs incurred unto the singer’s legal team. Then, in 2006, the funds really started rolling in for Jackson when Al Khalifa fronted millions to sustain his lavish lifestyle—funds that, according to the sheik, were granted as an advance to be repaid when Jackson’s career stopped hitting the skids.
Jacko’s story is pretty much the opposite. Nevertheless, he either owes a lot of money to a bunch of people including Al Khalifa, or he owes it to a bunch of people not including Al Khalifa. Either way, it’s bad. Jam on.
Buddy Up