JACKO SUED BY MANAGER WHO GOT HIM $25 MIL

Michael Jackson‘s ex manager and publicist, Raymone Bain, who worked with him from 2005 through 2008, has sued him for $44 million.

I told you in my old column several weeks ago that Bain was considering filing suit. Basically, she says she set up Jackson for his AEG Live deal for concerts in London, and now she wants her cut.

Discussions for the concerts began in February 2007, with Bain talking to AEG’s Randy Phillips. As I reported at the time, Jackson wouldn’t go through with it. But last year, after Bain was gone and replaced by Tohme Tohme (who is now gone, too), Jackson was finally convinced to agree to the shows’he was more desperate for the money than ever.

Bain is suing Jackson for, essentially, continuing his pattern of disloyalty and caprice. She says in her papers that once she set everything up, he paid everyone except her and stopped talking to her. Why she’s surprised is a good question: Jackson fired Bain a couple of days before the jury returned its verdict in his 2005 child molestation trial after months and months of work.

Bain was rehired in 2006 after Jackson split for Bahrain, and he signed agreements with her in May of that year authorizing her to reinvent and run his businesses. She did just that, hired new lawyers to represent him, and got him out of trouble and lawsuits. Jackson rewarded her by turning his back and changing his phone numbers. That’s called Jacko Standard Operating Procedure.

One of the things Bain did for Jackson was oversee a refinancing of his massive debts in 2007. At the end of that year, the refinancing gave him a fresh $25 million ‘ which of course is all gone sixteen months later. The refinancing also provided a separate $16 million to pay debts and legal losses. This means that Jackson’s debt secured by his ownership interest in Sony/ATV Music is headed toward a staggering $400 million.