John Duross O'Bryan, a forensic accountant, gave testimony in the Michael Jackson child molestation trial yesterday.
He claims that his investigations have revealed that Jackson was burning cash at the rate of some $20M to $30M more than he earned per annum.
That's quite a cash burn!
Needless to say the defence team argued that Jackson's financial health was not on trial. The prosecution contend that the depth of Jackson's financial troubles made him desperate, so desperate in fact, that he resorted to conspiracy to kidnap the Arvizos in order to prop up his finances.
O'Bryan used his skills to trace Jackson's assets and liabilities from 1999 to 2004.
One balance sheet, from June 30, 2002, showed Jackson with a negative net worth of minus $285M. Jackson had assets of $130M, but his liabilities were $415M.
O'Bryan testified that he warned Jackson that he might have to sell off his two greatest assets, the catalogue of his own songs and the Sony-ATV catalogue which contains rights to the works of numerous other artists including the Beatles.
However, according to O'Bryan, even if Jackson sold all his assets it may be that he would still owe Sony around $40M.
O'Bryan testified that Jackson owes the Bank of America at least $235M on a loan and a line of credit.
The funny thing about banks is that the more that you owe them, the nicer they are to you.
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