Los Angeles, Nov 23: Child molestation charges against superstar Michael Jackson could devastate his financial empire, already groaning under the weight of his flagging career and extravagant spending, experts said. Jackson, who has earned an estimated 750 million dollars over a legendary three-decade career that saw him transformed into a virtual entertainment deity in his 1980s peak, is not nearly as flush as he once was.
While Jackson still has assets of around 550 million dollars, he has also run up a debt of more than 200 million dollars as his record sales fall, his income drops and the cost of his lavish lifestyle grows.
"He is certainly not as rich as he used to be," Paul Maidment, executive editor of Forbes magazine, told.
"He is very short of cash," he said, adding that the negative publicity from the multiple allegations of child molestation made against him would only worsen the situation.
"This is going to be an extremely expensive lawsuit. Obviously, it will affect his wallet," he said.
"Once upon a time - in the 1990s -he was earning 60 million dollars a year. Now he is not earning anything like that."
Bureau Reoprt