But if the Jackson family and his worldwide followers hoped that the story would end with the trial of Dr Conrad Murray, Michael's personal physician, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in November 2011, they were disappointed. Michael was not to be allowed to rest in peace quite so quickly.
The simple truth is this: the most extraordinary fact about Michael Jackson's death is that it made him the highest-earning corpse in the world. Before he died, he was $500 million in debt. Now his estate's vast fortune, estimated at $1.5 billion, eclipses the wealth spawned even by Elvis Presley. Last year, Forbes magazine revealed that he had regained his number-one spot in the list of top-earning dead celebrities, raking in $160 million between October 2012 and October 2013.(This compares with $125 million for Madonna, who's still with us, and easily exceeds Elvis Presley's $55 million).
John Branca, co-executor of the Michael Jackson estate, admitted to journalist Robin Leach in June 2013 that Michael was now worth much more than he was when alive.
'He's made more money in the four years since his death than he made during his lifetime,' Branca said.
'Since he died, he's sold 50 million albums and is still the biggest-selling artist on iTunes.'But the details of this vast wealth are tortuously complex and remain highly controversial.
When his estate released a new album, Xscape, last month, featuring a duet with Justin Timberlake and other material recorded in 2001, it topped the charts both in the US and the UK. It was panned musically but, more tellingly, critics accused Xscape's producers of exploiting Michael's legacy simply from greed.
One headline, from the popular Daily Beast website, thundered: 'Michael Jackson's posthumous album Xscape is a confused, shameless money-grab.'The eleventh album released since Michael's death was a cash cow, critics claimed. Quincy Jones, who produced Thriller, Bad and Off The Wall, went further. In a hard-hitting interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, he concluded: 'They're trying to make money and I understand it.
'It's about the money. The estate, the lawyers you know… it's about the money.'
Frank Dileo insisted that Michael never released certain songs because they were not up to his incredibly high standards.
'Michael was a stickler,' he said. 'Unless it was incredible, he would never consider putting it out. I fear that the people who exploited Michael while he was alive are now conspiring to make as much money [as they can] off him in death. It's not the way Michael would have wanted it.'
