Paris Jackson Wants No More “Smoke & Mirrors” Over MJ Money After Estate Trashes Her Latest Claims As “Nonsensical”

Despite a court order to the contrary, Paris Jackson claims John Branca, the executor of her father’s fortune and legacy, has once again failed “to meet his fundamental disclosure obligations” and yet, at the same time, wants to hand out tens of millions to himself and his law firm. Calling the assertions and the demands for financial consequences “nonsensical,” the flush Michael Jackson Estate once again wants the deceased superstar’s daughter to beat it, to put it politely.

With a December 4 hearing penciled in with retired Judge Mitchell Beckloff for this latest dust-up between the ‘Zombies in Love’ singer and the Michael EP, Paris Jackson’s team view things in very black and white terms.

“Enough of the smoke and mirrors — Paris is asking to reduce the management fee,” a spokesperson for the younger Jackson told Deadline. “Executor Branca has repeatedly failed to meet deadlines ordered by the judge that are in place to provide Paris and her siblings visibility about how the Estate is being run. Since money is what motivates Executor Branca, this is the only way to enforce the timeline he agreed to.”

To be precise, in a filing in LA Superior Court late last week, Paris Jackson’s Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth attorneys accuse longtime foe Branca of playing loose with the rules that he himself insisted upon.

“Executor has violated the Court’s April 24, 2026 order by failing to meet his own self-selected, and then extended, deadline,” states the 12-page motion. “Despite having years to prepare these already belated accountings, Executor quietly filed incomplete documents styled as putative accounts current for 2023 and 2024. The 2023 filing expressly notes the material ways in which it is incomplete. As for 2024, it is nothing more than a placeholder. Neither of these defective filings provides a basis on which the Court could give its approval. Executor, however, neither sought relief from the Court nor committed to filing complete and accurate 2023 or 2024 accountings on any particular date.”

The filing is full of citations of alleged past violations of disclosures and obligations in what has become a very public and dragged out conflict between Michael Jackson and Debbie Rowe’s second child and the controversial Thriller superstar’s on-again/off-again lawyer.

However, one figure in this latest document stands out.

“This instance, however, is particularly offensive in that Executor’s defective filings include a request for approval of more than one hundred million dollars ($100,000,000) in compensation for the co-executors and the Ziffren firm,” the October 23 motion says. To rub that in, the document adds with barely veiled sarcasm: “It is unclear how Executor could calculate and distribute such an amount with any confidence and yet be unable to file complete and accurate accountings years later.”

Put in that context, and with the history between the parties (blockbuster biopic and all), “difficult” may be the kindest term one could use.

The motion from Paris Jackson goes on to declare: “Paris therefore requests that the Court reduce the compensation to Co-Executors for 2023, 2024 and each consecutive year until such time as Executor files a complete and accurate 2026 account current, by five percentage points, i.e., from 15% to 10% of the gross entertainment-related income.”

While 28-year-old Paris Jackson has reportedly received about $65 million from her late father’s now multi-billion dollar estate, which was over $500 million in debt at the time of MJ’s 2009 prescription drug OD death, she has been demanding a deeper dive into the books from Branca and now dead co-executor John McClain for a while. Claiming sweetheart deals, bonuses and payouts for no or little work, legal fees, and swaths of unnecessary expenses (like the tens of millions in reshoots for a near completed Antoine Fuqua-directed Michael after the unearthing of a very restrictive 1994 deal — along with a $20 million-plus settlement — with the family of then-underaged Jordan Chandler), Paris has had some wins and losses in what is pretty obviously a long term goal of taking control of the estate itself.

Or not, according to the MJ Estate itself today.

“It is an understatement to say that this motion is completely without merit, nor is it argued on facts, the estate’s spokesperson told Deadline Wednesday. “Plaintiff’s attorneys have motioned for a reduction in executor compensation, when in fact the executors waived that from the estate’s beginning, and have never taken any executor compensation. They are paid a separate, court-ordered management fee for operating the hugely successful Michael Jackson business.”

Not mentioning that $100 million, Team Branca add: “It is also nonsensical that the motion seeks absurd penalties for the 2023 and 2024 accountings which have already been filed or for the 2025 and 2026 accountings which are not required to be filed for another six and 14 months, respectively.”

BTW – whatever goes down on December 4, with a sequel to the $1.02 billon and more box office busting Michael in the works, don’t for one second think this de facto Jackson civil war is anywhere near over.