Some strange things are going on,lol but it seems that Henry Vacarro's youtube channel was take down from youtube <!-- s:? -->:?<!-- s:? -->. When I wanted to go to his channel this is what I received:
YouTube account HenryVaccaro has been terminated because we received multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement from claimants including:
Sony Music Entertainment
Web Sheriff
close
And for things to be even more strange ,here is a channel I found today :
Is this the same man or no??? Because he has the same picture like in the first channel,with Michael's clothes in the hand .Even in the comments people are asking him if he is the real one.To me is the same but he has more meat on him,lol <!-- s --><!-- s --> .
Here is "the truth and nothig but the truth" from henry Vacaro's mouth:
Interview with Henry Vaccaro( 15 february 2011)
After years of blogging about him, I got the chance to make an interview with Henry Vaccaro, the former owner of the biggest Jackson Family memorablia. A story from the man who’s life was hardly affected by the Jackson’s and the collection.
Below you may read the whole material (leave your comments to Mr. Vaccaro by clicking on the Comments link under):
Q: As it’s well known amongst the fans you get ahold of the Jackson Family memorablia on a bankrupcy court, as a result of a failed business venture with the family. What was your first feeling when you realised that you own the biggest Jackson Family memorablia on the world?
A: I was totally shocked when we started unpacking two 65 feet trailers of memorabilia. It took several months to unpack and catalog, I was amazed at the amount of very personal items that the Jackson’s had stored in that warehouse. In fact I felt that I violated this family. Some of the items included bank account deposit books, personal letters, legal documents, divorce papers, birth certificates, school records, personal family photos, etc. No one including me should have another family’s very personal property. I never wanted this property only my money. I lost the Kramer Guitar Co. which in 1988 was the most popular guitar in the US with sales of $18 million dollars as the Jackson’s defaulted on the purchase contract. I personally flew to California to met Tito where I offered to give everything back. I suggested we all go on a TV show make up with his family, and I would give everything back for nothing, I would in turn get my money from the sponsor. His lawyer refused.
Q: What were your initial plans with the memorablia? And what could you realise over the years?
A: My initial plans were to sell the collection in its entirety as I felt it would bring the most money. At first I thought it was worth several million dollars but only got bogus offers.
Q: Is it close to the truth that you didn’t do much with the items over the years from a business point of view?
A: After not being able to get real offers, as you may recall Michael’s value was at it’s lowest in those years because of his legal problems, I then decided to do a Pay Per View web site displaying the collection. In 2005 Michael sued me, my son, Vintage Pop, and MichaelJacksonSecretVault.com for One Hundred Million Dollars, hired a high power law firm and shut down the web site. I won the suite as it was dismissed with prejudice.
Q: According to the media reports you have added some more Michael Jackson items to the collection in 2007 bought on a Las Vegas auction. What was your motivation with that move?
A: Not true, I sold the entire collection to a public corporation, called Universal Express they held the Las Vegas auction which I attended when I saw the bid’s so low on what I knew were very valuable items I bought some back. The problem is the owner of Universal Express turned out to be a con artist, and was thrown in jail by the Security Exchange Commission. The SEC appointed a Receiver and Universal Express was liquidated. I was never paid. I filled suit against the Auction House, Universal Express, and the Receiver. A settlement was reached the terms of which can not be disclosed by court order. However I was allowed to recover all the unsold items.
Q: Did you buy or add other items to the collection over the years?
A: No.
Q: As the media reported you are on court with a man named Benson Hopp, because he and his partners stoled some items from the collection. Could you get back those items? Did any memorablia disappear over the years?
A: Some of the item that I was to get back were stored in a warehouse in Las Vegas these were the unsold auction items. When I went to the warehouse over 116 items of Michael’s were stolen and sold to Benson Hopp who in turn consigned them to Heritage Auction Co. We put Heritage on notice that the items were stolen we are now in court in Dallas, I believe that all items will be returned to me. I am sure many items have disappeared over the years.
Q: What was the most serious and the weirdest offer you got regarding the collection over the years?
A: The most serious offer came from Howard Mann, I must have entertained hundreds of offers some from Europe some from the Far East. I even hired several agents over the years one who claimed to have a $40,000,000 offer other in the $20,000,000 range. You name them I met with them.
Q: According to some sources you have sold the items recently to Howard Mann. Is it true? Did you keep any of the items?
A: Yes the entire collection was sold to Howard Mann. I kept some of the items.
Q: Do you have any connection with Mr. Mann and any of his entities? Mann created companies with names that are very similar to yours. As well he is using the same lawyer as you did.
A: Yes my family and I own a small percentage of the new entities in California. These entities have the same name to allow them protection under the dismissal of Michael Jackson 2005 law suite which was dismissed with prejudice. That means you cannot be sued again for the same thing. Edgar Pease is a fine lawyer he did represent me in the 2005 lawsuit. He knows all the facts that is probably why Howard Mann hired him.
Q: What do you think about the recent court case between the Michael Jackson Estate and Mr. Mann?
A: I think the lawsuit will be dismissed by the court.
Q: How do you feel about the things said or written about you in the media or on the fan forums?
A: Sometimes the nasty comments get to me but i’m sure the fan’s are acting out of their love for Michael. Nothing that I did was personal it was only business. I would like to ask the fans what they would do if in my shoes. The year is 1991, I was a major developer and general contractor in my home state of New Jersey, I was 51 years old. My father died in 1959 at age 51, I was 19, I quit college and started a construction business from scratch, worked 7 days a week built the business to one of the largest construction firms in the state, building schools, hospitals, Hi-Rise apartments, and hotels. In 1985, I formed a joint venture to develop my home town of Asbury Park NJ. The value of that project was $1 Billion Dollars. The economy went bad in late 80′s. My joint venture partner went bankrupt and took me with him. I owned a 256 room hotel in Asbury Park, Johnny Cash, my closest friend was one of my partners <!-- s:shock: -->:shock:<!-- s:shock: --> , the hotel then failed and went bankrupt. These events forced me into personal bankruptcy and I lost everything, including my Home, three Motels, Office Building, hotel,and a 12 building Industrial Park all toll assets of over $80 million, everything I worked my whole life for was gone. The only thing my family had left was H.V.V. Corp which owned Kramer Guitar Co as the stock was owned by my son and daughter and not subject to my personal bankruptcy. Going back to 1976 I was the original investor in Kramer Guitar Co I eventually became Chairman of the Board. Kramer grew so fast that by the late 80′s it was the hottest guitar in the country, played and endorsed by Eddie Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Hank Williams Jr, Twisted Sister on and on. We made a custom guitar for Tito Jackson and Kramer was used on The Victory Tour. In 1989 Kramer was sold to a investment group they defaulted on a bank loan and H.V.V. corp purchased the assets from the bank, and tried to revitalize the Kramer Brand. However a dispute with the bank over the ownership of some trademarks forced H.V.V. corp into a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. In 1991, while in Bankruptcy H.V.V. won it’s suit against the bank and was then approached by the Jackson Family through their newly established corporation called Jackson Communications Inc. to purchase,and fund the Plan of Reorganization for H.V.V.corp. which would lead to J.C.I. owning Kramer. Part of the deal was that I would sit on the Advisory Board of Directors of J.C.I. In 1992 I attended a Board meeting lasting 4 days held at the family home, Havenhurst, in Encino. I met the entire family except Michael. That Plan of Reorganization was approved by the Court. J.C.I. made the first payment and then defaulted and made no other payments. The Court converted H.V.V. to a Chapter 7 and sold the assets at auction I got NOTHING. I am now completely broke. So I filed suite against J.C.I. and was awarded a judgment of $1.4 million J.C.I. claimed they had no assets, the Federal Judge allowed me to pierce the corporate vail and personal judgments were entered against all stockholders that could be served. We could never serve Michael, Janet or Jackie, my lawyer was not concerned as he figured we could easily collect $1.4 million from the rest of the family. After losing everything in a personal bankruptcy and then getting screwed out of the last thing your family own’s meaning the Guitar Company is a bitter pill to swallow. So I fought Back. Like any reasonable person in my shoes would have done, nothing personal just business.
Q: Did you ever meet with Michael Jackson? What do you think about him?
A: No I never met Michael but I feel like I know him from seeing many of his personal effects. You could tell how talented he was just by some of his writings and drawings which I had the privilege to see and touch.I wish that I could have met him because I believe that we could have resolved our problems. Instead this team of lawyers got involved and really came after me .I must tell you this, that by 1993 I was so broke that at the deposition of Joe Jackson I offered to settle my $1.4 million dollar judgment for a quick payment of $100 thousand dollars. The family lawyer say’s “I’m here to make sure that you get nothing”. That attitude is what kept me going…
So his friend was Jonny Cash??? Wow so it is true the second account is real <!-- s:D -->:D<!-- s:D --> .
This hoax is very complex one,I have no words,I'm lost <!-- s:? -->:?<!-- s:? --> <!-- s:shock: -->:shock:<!-- s:shock: --> .
This reminds me of the TMZ article "MJ Songs, Art and Photos -- Tale of Thievery"
<!-- l -->viewtopic.php?f=172&t=17447<!-- l -->
Challenging the Jackson estate
Toronto businessman aiming for slice of King of Pop’s pie
LOS ANGELES For someone trying to sell a book, it couldn’t get much better than this: Oprah Winfrey, America’s reader-in-chief, was holding up a glossy volume of Michael Jackson photographs for her vast television audience while tossing softball questions to its coauthor, the late singer’s 80-year-old mother.
The gauzily shot moment of marketing gold was not the work of the official Jackson estate but of a little-known Toronto businessman, Howard Mann, a brash, goateed 38-year-old who cut his teeth in the titillation trade — nude online gambling, a naked women’s wrestling league — and is now pursuing an unorthodox plan to profit from what he calls “the most valuable name in history.”
That plan is a direct challenge to the Jackson estate, the behemoth quasi-corporation whose carefully strategized promotion of the pop star’s legacy and ironhanded crackdown on unlicensed merchandise have translated into hundreds of millions in posthumous earnings. The brewing fight between the estate and Mann is the latest wrinkle in the settling of his affairs and another reminder that even in death, nothing involving the King of Pop is ever simple.
Mann is taking on the estate armed with two weapons — a legal loophole that he says gives him carte blanche to flout intellectual property laws, and an unlikely alliance with Jackson’s mother, Katherine. Frustrated with the size of her allowance from the estate, the family matriarch has entered into a business partnership with Mann in which she has given her blessing to the book and other projects and he has paid her what he said was “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
“I’m very pleased working with Howard. He’s been very good to me,” she said recently.
These joint endeavours are becoming a headache for estate administrators, who seem reticent to offend Katherine Jackson, the guardian of the singer’s three children and a much admired figure to fans. A lawyer for the estate dismissed Mann’s novel legal theory as flawed, but the administrators have not moved to stop sales of his unauthorized Jackson products as they have with others who tried to cash in on Jackson’s name or likeness.
For the past five months, the estate has sat silent as Mann’s company, Vintage Pop Media, has touted its ownership of a trove of Jackson memorabilia — photos, personal papers, costumes and music — and hawked the book, calendars and other items on its website.
The estate’s lawyer, Howard Weitzman, said of Mann: “His day is coming. The estate will be taking appropriate legal action.”
In the scope of the Jackson empire, with its $273-million deal with Sony and the $260-million concert movie, Mann’s ventures — the $39.99 book and the $27.98 calendar — are small-time. However, his projects have hit a nerve in the delicate relationship between Jackson’s beloved mother and the two music veterans he tapped in his will to control his business affairs.
Under the terms of a private trust set up by the will, the singer’s children and his mother each get a 40 per cent share of the trust with the remainder going to charity. Upon Katherine Jackson’s death, her portion passes to the children. Jackson owed creditors about half a billion dollars at the time of his death. The estate remains in the red although massive music and merchandise deals as well as financial restructuring have significantly reduced the debt.
In a telephone interview, Katherine Jackson praised administrators John Branca and John McClain for doing “a very good job” managing the estate, but criticized her monthly cash allowance of $7,000 to $8,000 as inadequate and said it left her dependent on Mann to cover her expenses.
“I wish they would leave Howard alone and I wish they would leave me alone for working with Howard. I’m not greedy like people say. It’s need, not greed.”
The estate disputes the suggestion that administrators are not meeting her living expenses. Weitzman, the lawyer, noted that the allowance was approved by a probate judge and said the cash payments were only one aspect of the financial support that administrators provided. The estate also paid off the mortgage on the family home in Encino and foots the bill for household staff, security, vehicles, food, tuition and vacations.
“The estate has spent millions of dollars for Mrs. Jackson’s benefit and on the direct living expenses of both Mrs. Jackson and the children,” Weitzman said.
But for Katherine Jackson, it is not enough. “I think I should be getting more,” she said. She declined to specify why she needed the money. Her husband, Joe, sought an allowance from the court but was denied. Several other grandchildren also reside at the family home.
Finances were on her mind a few months after her son’s death when she was approached by Mann.
The business partners seem an odd pair: Katherine Jackson is a devout Jehovah’s Witness while much of Mann’s resumé is X-rated. Mann was the former chief executive of an online gambling site that featured topless porn stars as dealers and also headed up the Naked Women’s Wrestling League, an outfit that made its biggest headlines when it was sued by its hostess, Carmen Electra.
But when Mann introduced himself to Katherine Jackson a few months after her son’s June 2009 death, he offered her two things she wanted: money and the opportunity to protect her son’s reputation from yet another damaging press report.
Both stemmed from his purchase of an enormous memorabilia collection that Jackson’s parents had originally assembled for a planned family museum. Katherine and Joe Jackson subsequently developed financial problems and the collection was sold at a 2001 bankruptcy auction. Eventually, the memorabilia came into the possession of a New Jersey construction company owner, Henry Vaccaro Sr., who set up a pay-per-view website to profit from the material.
Michael Jackson sued Vaccaro and his company, Vintage Pop, for copyright infringement, cybersquatting, violation of his privacy rights and other claims in 2004, but the next year after his acquittal on child molestation charges, he decamped to Bahrain, refused to submit to a deposition and stopped paying his lawyers.
A federal judge dismissed the case in 2006 “with prejudice” — meaning the singer was barred from refiling the same claims.
After Jackson’s death, word that Vaccaro was trying to sell the collection reached Mann. He wasn’t a fan of Jackson’s music, but he had previously considered purchasing a music catalogue of early Jackson 5 recordings and he saw investment potential in the warehouse of old costumes, yellowing papers, artwork, pictures and recordings. When he looked closely, however, he concluded that the most valuable thing Vintage Pop had was not a particular piece of memorabilia but the court decision.
As Mann saw it, whoever owned Vintage Pop, the company Jackson had sued, was forever immunized against intellectual property suits from Jackson or his heirs and had free rein to make money from Jackson’s name.
“This is effectively a satellite estate. Its value is unfathomable,” Mann said.
Vaccaro and his family were stunned by his assessment of the judge’s declaration.
“We were thinking all this stuff, that’s the golden goose, the last thing we were thinking was this piece of paper,” recalled Vaccaro’s son-in-law, Mark Bahary, who was involved in the negotiations. In return, Vaccaro got an undisclosed amount of money and a slice of the profits.
After buying Vintage Pop, Mann approached Katherine Jackson to seek the family approval he felt was necessary before trying to sell merchandise to fans.
He said he told her he could provide regular cash payments with more ease than the estate, which was encumbered by her son’s debt.
He also told her a British tabloid was offering him “seven figures” for a “particular item” from the memorabilia locker. Mann declined to identify the item or the publication but said it was clear the paper’s goal was to smear Jackson’s memory.
At the family’s request, he destroyed the item and returned a box of other personal items to the family.
“He was nice enough to come to me with those things and I really appreciated what he did,” Katherine Jackson recalled.
The relationship has not been without missteps. This fall, Vintage Pop gave the gossip site TMZ a track from the memorabilia locker that the site advertised as never before released. It turned out to be a remix of an old Jacksons track, Destiny. The fan backlash was swift and brutal, and Mann had to issue an apology.
In addition to the book and other merchandise, Mann is working on a documentary based on 26 hours of Jackson family videotapes from the memorabilia locker. He is also planning a music-sharing site where users can remix some of the 273 Jackson music tracks from the memorabilia he bought.
“Long term, we believe the fan is going to want to buy the product that his mother feels is worthy to have his name attached,” Mann said.
Los Angeles Times
<!-- m -->http://www.thespec.com/feature/article/ ... son-estate<!-- m -->
“Long term, we believe the fan is going to want to buy the product that his mother feels is worthy to have his name attached,” Mann said. -> really? I hope Katherine is pulling the strings here in Michael's name, and not Mann.
Probably some of you already knew about this news, but this article caught my eye recently. I'm afraid there's much much more behind all this. I don't know what to think..What is TMZ telling us?? Who are the good guys, who's with Michael?
Comments
Hello 2good2btrue!!!!
Some strange things are going on,lol but it seems that Henry Vacarro's youtube channel was take down from youtube <!-- s:? -->:?<!-- s:? -->. When I wanted to go to his channel this is what I received:
YouTube account HenryVaccaro has been terminated because we received multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement from claimants including:
Sony Music Entertainment
Web Sheriff
close
And for things to be even more strange ,here is a channel I found today :
http://www.youtube.com/user/MrHenryVaccaro
Is this the same man or no??? Because he has the same picture like in the first channel,with Michael's clothes in the hand .Even in the comments people are asking him if he is the real one.To me is the same but he has more meat on him,lol <!-- s
Here is "the truth and nothig but the truth" from henry Vacaro's mouth:
Interview with Henry Vaccaro( 15 february 2011)
After years of blogging about him, I got the chance to make an interview with Henry Vaccaro, the former owner of the biggest Jackson Family memorablia. A story from the man who’s life was hardly affected by the Jackson’s and the collection.
Below you may read the whole material (leave your comments to Mr. Vaccaro by clicking on the Comments link under):
Q: As it’s well known amongst the fans you get ahold of the Jackson Family memorablia on a bankrupcy court, as a result of a failed business venture with the family. What was your first feeling when you realised that you own the biggest Jackson Family memorablia on the world?
A: I was totally shocked when we started unpacking two 65 feet trailers of memorabilia. It took several months to unpack and catalog, I was amazed at the amount of very personal items that the Jackson’s had stored in that warehouse. In fact I felt that I violated this family. Some of the items included bank account deposit books, personal letters, legal documents, divorce papers, birth certificates, school records, personal family photos, etc. No one including me should have another family’s very personal property. I never wanted this property only my money. I lost the Kramer Guitar Co. which in 1988 was the most popular guitar in the US with sales of $18 million dollars as the Jackson’s defaulted on the purchase contract. I personally flew to California to met Tito where I offered to give everything back. I suggested we all go on a TV show make up with his family, and I would give everything back for nothing, I would in turn get my money from the sponsor. His lawyer refused.
Q: What were your initial plans with the memorablia? And what could you realise over the years?
A: My initial plans were to sell the collection in its entirety as I felt it would bring the most money. At first I thought it was worth several million dollars but only got bogus offers.
Q: Is it close to the truth that you didn’t do much with the items over the years from a business point of view?
A: After not being able to get real offers, as you may recall Michael’s value was at it’s lowest in those years because of his legal problems, I then decided to do a Pay Per View web site displaying the collection. In 2005 Michael sued me, my son, Vintage Pop, and MichaelJacksonSecretVault.com for One Hundred Million Dollars, hired a high power law firm and shut down the web site. I won the suite as it was dismissed with prejudice.
Q: According to the media reports you have added some more Michael Jackson items to the collection in 2007 bought on a Las Vegas auction. What was your motivation with that move?
A: Not true, I sold the entire collection to a public corporation, called Universal Express they held the Las Vegas auction which I attended when I saw the bid’s so low on what I knew were very valuable items I bought some back. The problem is the owner of Universal Express turned out to be a con artist, and was thrown in jail by the Security Exchange Commission. The SEC appointed a Receiver and Universal Express was liquidated. I was never paid. I filled suit against the Auction House, Universal Express, and the Receiver. A settlement was reached the terms of which can not be disclosed by court order. However I was allowed to recover all the unsold items.
Q: Did you buy or add other items to the collection over the years?
A: No.
Q: As the media reported you are on court with a man named Benson Hopp, because he and his partners stoled some items from the collection. Could you get back those items? Did any memorablia disappear over the years?
A: Some of the item that I was to get back were stored in a warehouse in Las Vegas these were the unsold auction items. When I went to the warehouse over 116 items of Michael’s were stolen and sold to Benson Hopp who in turn consigned them to Heritage Auction Co. We put Heritage on notice that the items were stolen we are now in court in Dallas, I believe that all items will be returned to me. I am sure many items have disappeared over the years.
Q: What was the most serious and the weirdest offer you got regarding the collection over the years?
A: The most serious offer came from Howard Mann, I must have entertained hundreds of offers some from Europe some from the Far East. I even hired several agents over the years one who claimed to have a $40,000,000 offer other in the $20,000,000 range. You name them I met with them.
Q: According to some sources you have sold the items recently to Howard Mann. Is it true? Did you keep any of the items?
A: Yes the entire collection was sold to Howard Mann. I kept some of the items.
Q: Do you have any connection with Mr. Mann and any of his entities? Mann created companies with names that are very similar to yours. As well he is using the same lawyer as you did.
A: Yes my family and I own a small percentage of the new entities in California. These entities have the same name to allow them protection under the dismissal of Michael Jackson 2005 law suite which was dismissed with prejudice. That means you cannot be sued again for the same thing. Edgar Pease is a fine lawyer he did represent me in the 2005 lawsuit. He knows all the facts that is probably why Howard Mann hired him.
Q: What do you think about the recent court case between the Michael Jackson Estate and Mr. Mann?
A: I think the lawsuit will be dismissed by the court.
Q: How do you feel about the things said or written about you in the media or on the fan forums?
A: Sometimes the nasty comments get to me but i’m sure the fan’s are acting out of their love for Michael. Nothing that I did was personal it was only business. I would like to ask the fans what they would do if in my shoes. The year is 1991, I was a major developer and general contractor in my home state of New Jersey, I was 51 years old. My father died in 1959 at age 51, I was 19, I quit college and started a construction business from scratch, worked 7 days a week built the business to one of the largest construction firms in the state, building schools, hospitals, Hi-Rise apartments, and hotels. In 1985, I formed a joint venture to develop my home town of Asbury Park NJ. The value of that project was $1 Billion Dollars. The economy went bad in late 80′s. My joint venture partner went bankrupt and took me with him. I owned a 256 room hotel in Asbury Park, Johnny Cash, my closest friend was one of my partners <!-- s:shock: -->:shock:<!-- s:shock: --> , the hotel then failed and went bankrupt. These events forced me into personal bankruptcy and I lost everything, including my Home, three Motels, Office Building, hotel,and a 12 building Industrial Park all toll assets of over $80 million, everything I worked my whole life for was gone. The only thing my family had left was H.V.V. Corp which owned Kramer Guitar Co as the stock was owned by my son and daughter and not subject to my personal bankruptcy. Going back to 1976 I was the original investor in Kramer Guitar Co I eventually became Chairman of the Board. Kramer grew so fast that by the late 80′s it was the hottest guitar in the country, played and endorsed by Eddie Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Hank Williams Jr, Twisted Sister on and on. We made a custom guitar for Tito Jackson and Kramer was used on The Victory Tour. In 1989 Kramer was sold to a investment group they defaulted on a bank loan and H.V.V. corp purchased the assets from the bank, and tried to revitalize the Kramer Brand. However a dispute with the bank over the ownership of some trademarks forced H.V.V. corp into a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. In 1991, while in Bankruptcy H.V.V. won it’s suit against the bank and was then approached by the Jackson Family through their newly established corporation called Jackson Communications Inc. to purchase,and fund the Plan of Reorganization for H.V.V.corp. which would lead to J.C.I. owning Kramer. Part of the deal was that I would sit on the Advisory Board of Directors of J.C.I. In 1992 I attended a Board meeting lasting 4 days held at the family home, Havenhurst, in Encino. I met the entire family except Michael. That Plan of Reorganization was approved by the Court. J.C.I. made the first payment and then defaulted and made no other payments. The Court converted H.V.V. to a Chapter 7 and sold the assets at auction I got NOTHING. I am now completely broke. So I filed suite against J.C.I. and was awarded a judgment of $1.4 million J.C.I. claimed they had no assets, the Federal Judge allowed me to pierce the corporate vail and personal judgments were entered against all stockholders that could be served. We could never serve Michael, Janet or Jackie, my lawyer was not concerned as he figured we could easily collect $1.4 million from the rest of the family. After losing everything in a personal bankruptcy and then getting screwed out of the last thing your family own’s meaning the Guitar Company is a bitter pill to swallow. So I fought Back. Like any reasonable person in my shoes would have done, nothing personal just business.
Q: Did you ever meet with Michael Jackson? What do you think about him?
A: No I never met Michael but I feel like I know him from seeing many of his personal effects. You could tell how talented he was just by some of his writings and drawings which I had the privilege to see and touch.I wish that I could have met him because I believe that we could have resolved our problems. Instead this team of lawyers got involved and really came after me .I must tell you this, that by 1993 I was so broke that at the deposition of Joe Jackson I offered to settle my $1.4 million dollar judgment for a quick payment of $100 thousand dollars. The family lawyer say’s “I’m here to make sure that you get nothing”. That attitude is what kept me going…
So his friend was Jonny Cash??? Wow so it is true the second account is real <!-- s:D -->:D<!-- s:D --> .
This hoax is very complex one,I have no words,I'm lost <!-- s:? -->:?<!-- s:? --> <!-- s:shock: -->:shock:<!-- s:shock: --> .
LOVE
<!-- l -->viewtopic.php?f=172&t=17447<!-- l -->
Challenging the Jackson estate
Toronto businessman aiming for slice of King of Pop’s pie
LOS ANGELES For someone trying to sell a book, it couldn’t get much better than this: Oprah Winfrey, America’s reader-in-chief, was holding up a glossy volume of Michael Jackson photographs for her vast television audience while tossing softball questions to its coauthor, the late singer’s 80-year-old mother.
The gauzily shot moment of marketing gold was not the work of the official Jackson estate but of a little-known Toronto businessman, Howard Mann, a brash, goateed 38-year-old who cut his teeth in the titillation trade — nude online gambling, a naked women’s wrestling league — and is now pursuing an unorthodox plan to profit from what he calls “the most valuable name in history.”
That plan is a direct challenge to the Jackson estate, the behemoth quasi-corporation whose carefully strategized promotion of the pop star’s legacy and ironhanded crackdown on unlicensed merchandise have translated into hundreds of millions in posthumous earnings. The brewing fight between the estate and Mann is the latest wrinkle in the settling of his affairs and another reminder that even in death, nothing involving the King of Pop is ever simple.
Mann is taking on the estate armed with two weapons — a legal loophole that he says gives him carte blanche to flout intellectual property laws, and an unlikely alliance with Jackson’s mother, Katherine. Frustrated with the size of her allowance from the estate, the family matriarch has entered into a business partnership with Mann in which she has given her blessing to the book and other projects and he has paid her what he said was “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
“I’m very pleased working with Howard. He’s been very good to me,” she said recently.
These joint endeavours are becoming a headache for estate administrators, who seem reticent to offend Katherine Jackson, the guardian of the singer’s three children and a much admired figure to fans. A lawyer for the estate dismissed Mann’s novel legal theory as flawed, but the administrators have not moved to stop sales of his unauthorized Jackson products as they have with others who tried to cash in on Jackson’s name or likeness.
For the past five months, the estate has sat silent as Mann’s company, Vintage Pop Media, has touted its ownership of a trove of Jackson memorabilia — photos, personal papers, costumes and music — and hawked the book, calendars and other items on its website.
The estate’s lawyer, Howard Weitzman, said of Mann: “His day is coming. The estate will be taking appropriate legal action.”
In the scope of the Jackson empire, with its $273-million deal with Sony and the $260-million concert movie, Mann’s ventures — the $39.99 book and the $27.98 calendar — are small-time. However, his projects have hit a nerve in the delicate relationship between Jackson’s beloved mother and the two music veterans he tapped in his will to control his business affairs.
Under the terms of a private trust set up by the will, the singer’s children and his mother each get a 40 per cent share of the trust with the remainder going to charity. Upon Katherine Jackson’s death, her portion passes to the children. Jackson owed creditors about half a billion dollars at the time of his death. The estate remains in the red although massive music and merchandise deals as well as financial restructuring have significantly reduced the debt.
In a telephone interview, Katherine Jackson praised administrators John Branca and John McClain for doing “a very good job” managing the estate, but criticized her monthly cash allowance of $7,000 to $8,000 as inadequate and said it left her dependent on Mann to cover her expenses.
“I wish they would leave Howard alone and I wish they would leave me alone for working with Howard. I’m not greedy like people say. It’s need, not greed.”
The estate disputes the suggestion that administrators are not meeting her living expenses. Weitzman, the lawyer, noted that the allowance was approved by a probate judge and said the cash payments were only one aspect of the financial support that administrators provided. The estate also paid off the mortgage on the family home in Encino and foots the bill for household staff, security, vehicles, food, tuition and vacations.
“The estate has spent millions of dollars for Mrs. Jackson’s benefit and on the direct living expenses of both Mrs. Jackson and the children,” Weitzman said.
But for Katherine Jackson, it is not enough. “I think I should be getting more,” she said. She declined to specify why she needed the money. Her husband, Joe, sought an allowance from the court but was denied. Several other grandchildren also reside at the family home.
Finances were on her mind a few months after her son’s death when she was approached by Mann.
The business partners seem an odd pair: Katherine Jackson is a devout Jehovah’s Witness while much of Mann’s resumé is X-rated. Mann was the former chief executive of an online gambling site that featured topless porn stars as dealers and also headed up the Naked Women’s Wrestling League, an outfit that made its biggest headlines when it was sued by its hostess, Carmen Electra.
But when Mann introduced himself to Katherine Jackson a few months after her son’s June 2009 death, he offered her two things she wanted: money and the opportunity to protect her son’s reputation from yet another damaging press report.
Both stemmed from his purchase of an enormous memorabilia collection that Jackson’s parents had originally assembled for a planned family museum. Katherine and Joe Jackson subsequently developed financial problems and the collection was sold at a 2001 bankruptcy auction. Eventually, the memorabilia came into the possession of a New Jersey construction company owner, Henry Vaccaro Sr., who set up a pay-per-view website to profit from the material.
Michael Jackson sued Vaccaro and his company, Vintage Pop, for copyright infringement, cybersquatting, violation of his privacy rights and other claims in 2004, but the next year after his acquittal on child molestation charges, he decamped to Bahrain, refused to submit to a deposition and stopped paying his lawyers.
A federal judge dismissed the case in 2006 “with prejudice” — meaning the singer was barred from refiling the same claims.
After Jackson’s death, word that Vaccaro was trying to sell the collection reached Mann. He wasn’t a fan of Jackson’s music, but he had previously considered purchasing a music catalogue of early Jackson 5 recordings and he saw investment potential in the warehouse of old costumes, yellowing papers, artwork, pictures and recordings. When he looked closely, however, he concluded that the most valuable thing Vintage Pop had was not a particular piece of memorabilia but the court decision.
As Mann saw it, whoever owned Vintage Pop, the company Jackson had sued, was forever immunized against intellectual property suits from Jackson or his heirs and had free rein to make money from Jackson’s name.
“This is effectively a satellite estate. Its value is unfathomable,” Mann said.
Vaccaro and his family were stunned by his assessment of the judge’s declaration.
“We were thinking all this stuff, that’s the golden goose, the last thing we were thinking was this piece of paper,” recalled Vaccaro’s son-in-law, Mark Bahary, who was involved in the negotiations. In return, Vaccaro got an undisclosed amount of money and a slice of the profits.
After buying Vintage Pop, Mann approached Katherine Jackson to seek the family approval he felt was necessary before trying to sell merchandise to fans.
He said he told her he could provide regular cash payments with more ease than the estate, which was encumbered by her son’s debt.
He also told her a British tabloid was offering him “seven figures” for a “particular item” from the memorabilia locker. Mann declined to identify the item or the publication but said it was clear the paper’s goal was to smear Jackson’s memory.
At the family’s request, he destroyed the item and returned a box of other personal items to the family.
“He was nice enough to come to me with those things and I really appreciated what he did,” Katherine Jackson recalled.
The relationship has not been without missteps. This fall, Vintage Pop gave the gossip site TMZ a track from the memorabilia locker that the site advertised as never before released. It turned out to be a remix of an old Jacksons track, Destiny. The fan backlash was swift and brutal, and Mann had to issue an apology.
In addition to the book and other merchandise, Mann is working on a documentary based on 26 hours of Jackson family videotapes from the memorabilia locker. He is also planning a music-sharing site where users can remix some of the 273 Jackson music tracks from the memorabilia he bought.
“Long term, we believe the fan is going to want to buy the product that his mother feels is worthy to have his name attached,” Mann said.
Los Angeles Times
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“Long term, we believe the fan is going to want to buy the product that his mother feels is worthy to have his name attached,” Mann said. -> really? I hope Katherine is pulling the strings here in Michael's name, and not Mann.
Probably some of you already knew about this news, but this article caught my eye recently. I'm afraid there's much much more behind all this. I don't know what to think..What is TMZ telling us?? Who are the good guys, who's with Michael?