Michael Jackson may have been the King of Pop but he owed a princely sum when he died.

New legal papers say Jacko owed more than $500million and his estate was near-bankrupt. 

His dire finances emerged as lawyers who say they turned around the fortunes of his estate submitted multi-million dollar claims for fees.

The Thriller star owed more than 65 creditors when he died from an apparent cardiac

 arrest in June 2009, aged 50, says the filing in Los Angeles.

In March, estate executor attorney John Branca, A&R executive John McClain and their legal counsel, Jonathan Steinsapir

 and Saul Ewing, claimed the estate was saddled with debt when they saved it. It has since bounced back and is now valued at more than $1.5billion.

Jackson had “more than half a dozen lawsuits pending worldwide” at the time of his death with creditors’ claims spawning new lawsuits, “of which several resulted in litigation,” the petition reads.

After his death, attorneys for the executors handled 15 lawsuits in America and assisted with more in Europe and Japan, most of which they say were resolved.

The claim says: “The executors were able to renegotiate and restructure financing arrangements that existed at the time of Michael’s death.”

It says these were at “substantially reduced interest rates, enabling the estate to avoid the loss of any assets to

the lenders”.

Renegotiations included debt secured by Jackson ’s catalogue Mijac Music, the estate’s interest in Sony/ATV3 and the mortgage on his Hayvenhurst estate and Lindley Avenue apartment in Encino. According to the petition, the executors also obtained an interest in EMI Music Publishing as a result of negotiations with Sony in 2012.

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Source: Tampa Bay Times