Before I start, I would like to make a correction.
Today is not Conrad Murray’s preliminary hearing. Today is a hearing to determine the date of the preliminary hearing. According to CNN News, quoting the judge, it will be set for sometime in January and will last 2 to 4 weeks.
Now let’s move on to a man we all know and don’t love, Mr. Tohme R. Tohme. Or Dr. Tohme Tohme. I don’t know what his full accurate name is to be honest. And it seems I’m not the only one. I tried researching when he came into the picture exactly. What prompts this research ? An audio tape. If you do a quick search on YouTube, you’ll find it in a heartbeat. Reverend June Gatlin, who is said to be Michael Jackson’s spiritual advisor in the year of his death, gave an interview where she played a recorded conversation she had with Michael. He proceeds to tell her, though his voice sounds steady, that Tohme, apparently hired as his business manager, is keeping him from knowing what is actually going on in his finances and that he is worried about it. That Tohme is basically controlling his life. I still don’t really understand why Gatlin recorded the conversation but it’s a good piece of the puzzle in this MJ enigma.
Information on Tohme Tohme is scarce and sometimes contradictory. According to Brian Oxman, Tohme is a cousin of Halima Jackson, Jermaine Jackson’s wife, hence why he was introduced to Michael. Now, Brian Oxman is not what I would call a rock solid source. It is one lead to explore. According to the AP, he is an American citizen of Lebanese descent in his late 50s. Sounds pretty incomplete.
Tohme gave an interview to the Associated Press after Michael’s death to reveal his persona. He reveals that he met Michael when Jermaine contacted him to ask if he could help save the Neverland Ranch from foreclosure . Here we have a confirmation of a Jermaine link. In fact, Tohme was at Jermaine’s side at the press conference he gave at the UCLA Medical Center.
He calls himself, “the closest person to Michael Jackson for the last year and a half”. He then claims to have stricken the deal with Thomas Barrack of Colony Capital, for whom he used to work for, and arranged the London concerts (Barrack called up his old friend Philip Anschutz from AEG, which employee Randy Phillips had already expressed interest in booking MJ for the 02 Arena) and adds he wasn’t paid for his services.
“ His negotiations for Jackson included a Broadway show with the Nederlander organization, an animated TV show based on “Thriller,” a line of clothing including “moonwalk shoes,” and more. He said he was working with others to renegotiate the terms of Jackson’s main assets, his share of the Sony-ATV Music Publishing Catalog — which includes music by the Beatles — and the catalog of Mijac, the company that controls Michael Jackson’s own music”.
“I built a fence around Michael to keep people out,” he said, “I was trying to do what we could to maximize his profits and minimize spending. I wanted to find a way to reel in all the loans he had”.
“We had an agreement,” Tohme continued. “I would never interfere with his creative decisions and he wouldn’t interfere with my business decisions.”
“He always said to me, ‘I want people to really know who I am after I’m gone.’”
He then ends the interview by saying he was convinced Michael was in perfect health the last time he saw him, 2 days before his death, and that he kept himself on a healthy diet and never took drugs.
It doesn’t fit Michael’s audio tape. At all. In fact, it has been reported that Tohme was fired by Jackson a couple of months before he died because Tohme had auctioned off belongings to the Julien’s Auction House without MJ’s permission. He was at the time officially holding the title of President of MJJ Productions. He also returned to the Jackson estate, not so long ago, $5.5 million in “secret cash” (allegedly residuals that Michael wanted to use to buy a property in Las Vegas) and Michael and some Neverland items that he originally wanted to auction off. According to auctioneer Darren Julien and his partner Martin Nolan, James R. Weller, Tohme’s partner, met with them in February 2009 to suggest they were in danger from the Nation of Islam if they didn’t stop an auction that was supposed to happen in March. Then, Tohme met with them to refute what Weller said and to tell them to go on with the unauthorised auction. Weller is listed as Tohme’s partner on the TRW Advertising website, a PR company led by the two. As for Tohme, his claim that he was an ambassador for Senegal was denied by the Senegalese authorities. His claim to having orchestrated the PR of several political figures is unfounded. His title of “Doctor” was never confirmed either. He is not Randy Phillips’ brother-in-law since Mr. Phillips does not have a sister. He is a man who has been caught in scams and lies more than once. A faulty master of fabrication. Definitely of the foe kind. After his dismissal, he was replaced by long time friend of MJ’s Frank DiLeo, of the old dream team which sounded like a wiser choice. Speak of the devil, DiLeo contradicted himself in two subsequent TV interviews where he mentioned Tohme – the first time he claimed Michael was in total control of his only to recant his tune in a second interview, claiming Michael was afraid of the shady character that is Tohme. This makes it all the more difficult to understand the true nature of Michael and Tohme’s relationship.
With such little information, it is hard to tell if Tohme is a person of interest when it comes to what happened on June 25th, hoax or death. Michael had money. Money is perceived as power. Leeches automatically gravitated towards him. It’s not new. If Tohme was introduced through Jermaine, Michael of course probably trusted his brother’s judgment – though it turned out to be an obscure disaster. Added up to the Leonard Rowe information, the Schaffel and Wiesner saga (who were cited as having conspired against MJ in court in 2005… which begs the question, why in hell is Katherine working with them ?), you can get a sense of Michael’s rocky business life. Michael was good at business, no question. But business has several aspects. Michael had a head for marketing. He knew what people liked when it came to music and he knew how to become popular – he had a flair for hits. However, finances was most likely not his thing. Why would it be ? According to Mesereau, during the 2005 trial, Michael stayed away from that mathematical side of his affairs because it “killed his creative juices”. What with the size of Michael’s assets, Michael needed professionals to handle his money flow and accounting. Unavoidable. Unavoidable that he was at risk of being taken advantage of, because that’s the risk you have to take at his position.
Now the question remains – are those characters involved ? Or are they just garbage material, another bump in the road in Michael’s life, come and gone at the filing of a lawsuit ?
Feel free to debate and add your own information and opinion on the matter in the comment section !
Links :
Associated Press article – http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/31740617
June Gatlin’s recorded conversation – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8F6bFc3QA4
Transcripts of Frank Dileo’s Larry King interview about Tohme – http://archives.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0908/04/lkl.01.html
Video of Frank Dileo’s MSNBC interview about Tohme – http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/32537060#32537060
Senegalese authorities’ rebuttal of Tohme’s ambassardor claim – http://fr.allafrica.com/stories/200906290986.html
Jackson’s Rep threatens Darren Julien – http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2009/03/24/claim-jackos-rep-threatened-harm-nation-islam/
Video of Brian Oxman talking about Tohme Tohme – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkhwPw5WEeA
Anna-tomy of a hoax - by Anna.K 