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(ANSA) – LOS ANGELES, DECEMBER 24 – Michael Jackson’s huge ranch ‘Neverland’ was purchased by American billionaire Ron Burkle for about $ 22 million, well below the original sale price.
The Montana businessman has investments ranging from supermarkets to the music industry. It acquired the property for its “land bank opportunity,” its spokesperson said. Burkle had been a business consultant for Michael Jackson, and also helped him pay off the large debts accumulated as a result of his lifestyle in the years before his death.
Reported by the Wall Street Journal, the price of $ 22 million was confirmed as “roughly correct” by a source familiar with the deal: a drastic drop from the valuation of $ 100 million in 2015. Last year the price. It had already dropped to 31 million, but the property had not found a buyer. According to the press, Michael Jackson purchased this property for $ 19.5 million in the 1980s. Deep in debt, shortly before his death in 2009, the star sold Neverland to Thomas Barrack Jr.’s Colony Capital for $ 22.5 million. Dollars.
Located on 1,100 acres of land, 40 miles from Santa Barbara, the ranch was raided by investigators in 2003 when the star was accused of abusing the children he had brought to his home. Police found a large collection of images and photographs of child pornography. Jackson was acquitted in 2005. A recent HBO documentary “Leaving Neverland” reports the testimony of two men who claim to have been sexually abused by Michael Jackson as children. The pop star’s heirs, who deny the allegations, are suing HBO for “posthumous murder” and demanding more than $ 100 million in damages. (HANDLE).
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