This is Part 2 of what will be many.

The lawsuit filed July 8th by the Michael Jackson Estate comes from Hollywood powerhouse firm Lavely and Singer. They do not fool around. Martin Singer is a killer. If you’re up against him, it’s war.

The lawsuit alleges that Frank Cascio (as described in my previous story) saw an opportunity after “Leaving Neverland” aired on HBO. The documentary was about two of Michael’s other “kids,” Wade Robson and Jimmy Safechuck, who waited years after Michael’s passing to say they were abused.

“Leaving Neverland” aired on March 3rd and 4th, 2019. Frank and I discussed it at the time. Based on his views, and material I’d otherwise collected, I took the position that Robson and Safechuck were liars, and had filed lawsuits to grab money before the probate door closed.

In the new lawsuit. the Estate alleges that Frank Cascio saw an opportunity to make money. If Robson and Safechuck were getting a payday, he should, too.

The lawsuit says that Frank and unnamed others
insisted on meeting with MJC’s representatives at the Sunset Marquis
Hotel swimming pool wearing only bathing suits so that MJC’s representatives could not wear a “wire” to record the conversation. Only someone engaging in extortion or other unlawful conduct would be worried about their conversation being recorded.” The complaint observes: “A truthful person asserting legitimate
legal claims should have no objection to being recorded.”

The Estate says this was a shakedown, but they agreed to it. (Why? Every movie and TV show says never give in to blackmailers.) They say they did to protect Michael’s children — Paris, Prince, and Blanket — from further embarrassment. The amount, I was told some time ago, was $3.3 million each for the five Cascio siblings.

But then says the complaint, Frank Cascio wanted more. This was laid it for me by sources months ago. This is the first time I’ve seen it expressed by lawyers. They say:

“After receiving monies paid to them pursuant to the Agreement, Frank, through
Respondents’ then-lawyer, demanded that Respondents be paid hundreds of millions of dollars more, otherwise, Respondents would file a bogus public lawsuit containing outlandish accusations against Michael that are completely contrary to their prior statements supporting and defending Michael. Respondents’ lawyer also warned that they “expect a substantive response by end of day
tomorrow. Otherwise, we will be forced to expand the ‘circle of knowledge’ ” and alluded to their claims being revealed “to the buyer of the catalogue” if their demands went unsatisfied.”

The catalogue referred to was Michael ownership of the Beatles’ songs, which was being sold to Sony Music. Additionally, the Estate had a successful Las Vegas show and was preparing the Broadway musical “MJ.” A $16.5 million payoff probably seemed like the lesser of evils.

What followed was the Estate’s move to accuse Cascio of extortion. The details become complex, but the Estate basically says that Cascio’s insistence on getting more money got worse and worse. They were not going to be blackmailed. A private legal war raged. Until we got to this complaint.

There’s a strange twist here. The Cascios hired attorney Howard King, who’d been involved with various aspects and participants in the Jackson case cira 2003-2005. Cascio eventually moved onto Mark Geragos, who’d represented Michael in 2003 — before Tom Mesereau — in the Arvizo arrest. (Isn’t this a conflict of interest somehow?)

The complaint says:

“Since taking over the representation of Respondents in this dispute, Attorney Geragos has menacingly warned that his clients are poised to file a public lawsuit in court against one of the Officers of MJC and Co-Executors of the Estate of Michael Jackson and the attorneys involved in the Agreement…”

“Geragos,” the complaint alleges, “reduced Respondents’ previous
outlandish demand for $213 Million to $44 Million, which Geragos demanded on behalf of Respondents be paid in order to avoid a public lawsuit including Respondents’ scurrilous and fabricated claims.”

There’s more, of course, which we’ll deal with on Thursday afternoon.

Again, I’ve been writing about these people — all of them — for 25 years. I use the word ‘tragic’ because it is — for everyone involved.

It’s late so I’m going to do a quick story tonight and more tomorrow.

The Michael Jackson estate has filed suit against Frank Cascio for extortion. This is Earth-shattering but it’s been coming for a while.

Cascio, 45, is part of the family closest to Michael especially before he had children. Dominic Cascio, the father, met Michael at New York’s Helmsley Palace Hotel in the 1990s. As he and wife Connie had children, they made Michael part of the family.

The five Cascio children are Frank, Eddie, Dominic Jr., Aldo, and Marie Nicole.

The Estate says that in 2020 it quietly paid off Frank and his siblings to the tune of $15 million after Frank alleged abuse. The Estate was in the middle of doing deals to enrich itself. Rather than get in a public fight they acquiesced. Only they say that Frank turned around and demanded more money — $213 million. Now they’ve gone public against Frank and the Cascios as — they claim — Frank is threatening to release damaging information.

It’s a horrible, tragic mess.

Michael lavished the Cascios with gifts and trips. They took him in the summer of 2007 when Michael arrived with his kids in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey. During that time, Eddie Cascio said Michael added vocals to songs Eddie had written. Michael died in June 2009. In June 2010, I broke the story that the songs existed.

In fact, earlier I’d heard the demos without Michael’s voice. They were sung by a James Porte, who is now the husband of Marie Nicole Cascio.

Sony and the Estate accepted the songs as Michael’s and put three of them on his posthumous “Victory.” Die hard Jackson fans refused to believe the vocals were Michael’s. They boycotted the release, and filed a class action lawsuit against Sony and the estate.

Frank went to work for Michael when he was 18. I met him officially when he was about 20. There was a gathering in 2000 at the home of prominent PR maven Howard Rubenstein. Frank was there with Michael, I was there, and that was when we connected.

Three years later, Michael was accused of molesting Gavin Arvizo and kidnapping his family. The alleged kidnapper was Frank, carrying out Michael’s wishes.

But Frank had another story. He came to me with a suitcase full of actual paper receipts showing that he’d simply entertained the Arvizo’s. Nothing had happened to the children. Frank’s evidence was a key factor in Michael being acquitted in 2005.

Because Michael died with an old will, the Cascios were not left anything. They had been a solid foundation for Michael, but they had no financial reward. Dominic Cascio — I reported exclusively — had borrowed $600,000 from Michael a decade earlier to build a restaurant. Eventually, Il Michelangelo went into business, but not for a long time. It’s unclear how much more money Michael gave the Cascios.

When Michael was arrested in 2003, part of a story came out. Michael had earlier flown to Miami to meet financier Al Malnik. Among the people in his group were Marie Nicole and young Aldo. They all returned to Los Angeles together.

Aldo was 12 going on 13 at the time. His nickname in the Jackson-Cascio group, given to him by Michael, was “Baby Rubba.” He went to Miami and other places with Michael, with sister Marie Nicole two years older. Later, it came out that Marie Nicole felt like a third wheel. She wrote to Michael:

“I am stupied (sic) and I don’t think I deserve to be in your Applehead Club. Those are all the reasons I get this way. I am very sad because I am a faget (sic). I know that you don’t really like me because I am a girl. You don’t like me because I get this way. I get in this (sic) for many reasons. One reason is because I am a girl and I know you don’t like girls as much as boys. Baby Rubba, Dom, Angel, Frank were all your babies and since I am a girl I can’t be. They get whatever they want whenever they want. Golf carts quads they all got to sleep with you and I never did. Face it I know I am not liked by you all.(Applehead Club) Maybe I should not come on any trips so I can make everyone happy. Not even my brothers like me instead they just talk about me and assume I won’t care. But I do! I’m sensitive and I have to run away or something. I am so ugly and nobody likes me. Please don’t tell anyone because if you do I will be really upset. I do have 1 question that I want to ask you. Well I hope this tells you why I get this way and will probably never get out of it.

Remember I first reported all of this in real time. There was barely an internet and no social media. On many occasions over the last 20 or so years, I asked Frank point blank, Did anything happen between Michael and him or any of his brothers? He was adamant: No. He even wrote a book praising Jackson called “Michael and Me.” He was paid a $300,000 advance, which we then discussed as his “inheritance.”

You can read my 2011 story about the book by clicking here.

There’s a lot more, this is only the tip of the iceberg as I know it. Tomorrow I will address some of that material. Suffice to say, if Frank and the Cascios are lying, it’s a terrible story. Is this a shakedown? If Michael did do something to them, the tragedy is overwhelming.

More on the actual lawsuit filed by the Estate here.