ABC News: Bad Info From MJ Prosecutors?

He’s a little if-y on the ‘finances’ and ‘bill paying’ info, as you know he’s gotten information about Jackson’s finances wrong so many times in the past. But other than that, he’s fast. LOL – Whisper ABC: Bad Info From MJ Prosecutors? Wednesday, July 14, 2004 By Roger Friedman ABC News: Bad Info From MJ Prosecutors? I don’t want to get into a war with ABC News and “Good Morning America,” but they are getting bad information from Michael Jackson’s prosecutors and accusers, according to my sources. ABC reported this morning that five Jackson employees, who may be named as co-conspirators in his child molestation case, received huge payouts from Jackson to watch the family of Jackson’s accuser. ABC also claims that one of them, Frank Tyson, received $1 million in cash from Jackson and picked it up himself at a bank. Not only is this untrue, my sources said, but it is completely documented to not have happened. Here’s what they told me happened. Tyson, whose family has been friendly with Jackson for almost 20 years, was asked by the pop star to pick up $1 million from the US Bank on Santa Monica Boulevard in Santa Monica, Calif. Tyson was accompanied by his friend, Vinnie Amen and Jackson videographer Marc Schaffel. The money had been transferred by FOX Entertainment to Neverland Valley Entertainment as part of a payment for a rebuttal video to Martin Bashir’s ABC documentary “Living With Michael Jackson.” The rebuttal video aired on the FOX network on Feb. 20, 2003. My sources tell me that Jackson asked Tyson to retrieve the $1 million in cash as a way of bypassing his own accountants. “He wanted cash for various things,” my source said. As I’ve written in this space before — and we’ve seen on various videos — Jackson’s spending habits are far different from those of the average American. He is also known to subvert his own advisers when he wants something. If the money had been paid to him through normal channels, Jackson would likely not have seen it. The accountants would have used to it pay his bills, setting aside about half of it for taxes. Tyson, I am told, was paid possibly a total of $65,000 during the weeks he worked for Schaffel and Neverland Valley Entertainment on video productions. During that time he was also responsible, with Amen, for chauffeuring the 13-year-old accuser and his family on shopping trips, babysitting the boy and his siblings, and even accompanying the mother to family court when she was asking her ex-husband for more child support. Tyson and Amen were paid with checks by Neverland Valley Entertainment, all of which were obtained by submitting invoices. The invoices and copies of the checks will all be used as evidence if Jackson’s case goes to trial. As for Schaffel, and managers Dieter Wiesner and Ronald Konitzer, payments to them would be presented to the court as regular fees and have nothing to do with monitoring the family. :nav Source: [url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,125596,00.html]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,125596,00.html[/url]