Was Michael a Dead Peasant?

Some things to ponder….

Dead Peasants

“Corporate-owned life insurance (COLI) is life insurance on employees' lives that is owned by the employer corporation, with benefits payable to the corporation. COLI was originally purchased on the lives of key employees and executives by a company to hedge against the financial cost of losing key employees to unexpected death, the risk of recruiting and training replacements of necessary or highly-trained personnel, or to fund corporate obligations to redeem stock upon the death of an owner. This use is commonly known as "key man" or "key person" insurance. Although this article refers only to practice and policy in the United States, key person insurance is used worldwide.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate-owned_life_insurance

From Wall Street Journal Law Blog February 24, 2009

“Ever heard of “dead peasant” insurance policies? We hadn’t either, until recently. In a nutshell, they’re often secret insurance policies taken out by companies on unwitting employees, which can yield sizable corporate tax breaks.”

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/02/24/dead-peasant-policies-the-next-big-thing-in-insurance-litigation/tab/article/

From msn.money

“Right now, your company could have a life insurance policy on you that you know nothing about. When you die - perhaps years after you leave your employer - the tax-free proceeds from this policy wouldn’t go to your family. The money would go to the company.”

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/insurance/p64954.asp

From Fog City Journal October 3, 2009

“I learned about a new low in corporate greed … It is called “dead peasant” insurance. Companies take out secret insurance policies on their employees and name themselves as beneficiaries.”

http://www.fogcityjournal.com/wordpress/2009/10/03/dead-peasants-insurance-policies/

My partner watched “This Is It” with me today. He watched from a technical point of view since he was Communications in the military and works on robotics professionally….he loves his technical stuff!

As we watched, he’d have me pause so he could comment. This is actually a standard practice for us, we tend to pause movies as we watch them and discuss them along the way. This usually results in a two hour movie run time growing to four or five hours depending on how long we pause it.

First pause came with the appearance of Light Man. When my partner brought this up, I remembered a Wired Expo we went to that had the latest technology…including a suit that made one invisible which is actually the basic premise of Light Man. Ideally, the light is “bent” to show what is behind the person wearing the suit thus rendering them invisible to others.

The second, and many of the following pauses, dealt with the headset Michael was forced to wear. My partner pointed out that whenever Michael seemed to be singing off-key or having trouble with his balance, he was wearing the ear pieces. When he was on-key and his footwork was sure, the ear pieces were dangling at the side of his head.

Michael, himself, mentions this in the film when he commented that the ear pieces affected his inner ear.

My partner pointed out that when one has ear pieces in, they can’t hear their own voice - a natural form of feedback for pitch, etc. - that if the ear pieces are set wrong, you get feedback, echo, all kinds of interference. He further pointed out that with ear pieces in and not being able to get natural feedback, that this can affect the inner ear which helps to regulate the body’s balance.

Watch the film again, and watch and listen to Michael both when he’s wearing the ear pieces and when they’re dangling out of his ears. It will be interesting to find out if the footage Murray’s defense plans on using to show Michael as “old, frail and drug addicted” will show Michael with the ear pieces in or out.

The final pause came when my partner commented that a lot of those involved were just giving Michael lip service about how great he was and his wanting to have hands on; but when it came to actually listening to him, they appeared not to want to do this. That, basically, a lot of the “directors” were NOT listening to Michael when they should have and could have learned something.

All of the above puts the alleged conversation Michael had the night he died into an entirely different light. The conversation where Michael is allegedly saying he couldn’t do the show. At first glance, this looks like he can’t do the show because of his failing health; BUT if there were artistic conflicts and differences, and people in the show were not listening to him, it could also mean it was impossible for him to work.

This is where the USA PATRIOT Act comes in. If the Feds get involved in this case, and any and all forms of communication of both Murray and Michael for the day, and possibly the preceding day, are subpoenaed, then the transcripts of all communication could verify if, indeed, Michael did call Murray at 1:00 a.m. as Murray says; that Michael did, indeed, place a call - and to who - stating he couldn’t do the show, etc.
There’s also a bit of conflict on just who hired Murray.

From ABC July 2, 2009

“Phillips said that Jackson insisted that AEG hire his doctor of choice, Dr. Conrad Murray….

“Michael looked me in the eye, and he's strong and he was stubborn and wanted something," Phillips said. "He looked me in the eye [and said], 'Look, this is the machine,' pointing to his body, 'that fuels this entire business. OK?”

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/MichaelJackson/story?id=7990611&page=1

"According to records from ancestry.com - the world’s largest family history website - Dr Thome and AEG Live boss Randy Phillips were related by marriage back in the 1970’s.”

NOTE: My partner looked at the pics of Randy Phillips and Dr. Thome and said, “Those are some sketchy lookin’ mother f*ckers.” LOL! How right he is!

http://susanetok.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/dr-tohme-related-to-randy-phillips-by-marriage/

From DBKP July 5, 2009

“Then there’s the doctor at the center of Jackson’s death, Dr. Conrad Murray, who was hired by AEG, the company promoting Jackson’s concerts.”

http://deathby1000papercuts.com/2009/07/michael-jacksons-death-neverland-the-mysterious-dr-tohme-president-of-michael-jackson-productions/

From stltoday February 7, 2010

“Jackson had not signed their contract so Murray never collected any money for his work.”

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/stories.nsf/story/F2798C90688A9EC1862576C4001CAF7E?OpenDocument

From The Hollywood Gossip November 17, 2009

“AEG was paying Murray's costs as he served as MJ's doctor.”

http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2009/11/dr-conrad-murray-suing-aeg-for-back-pay/

Interesting video on Thome Thome

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42kvlwc0rlA&feature=player_embedded