MICHAEL Jackson's sister La Toya believes the King of Pop was effectively "murdered" for his money by a manipulative entourage, it emerged last night.
La Toya said of her brother's sudden death: "We don't think just one person was involved in the murder. It was a conspiracy to get Michael's money."
La Toya, 53, accused a "shadowy" group of hangers-on of cutting him off from his family and friend
s.
They also fed him drugs and saw him as a "cash cow", she claimed. "He was surrounded by a bad circle," she said. "Michael was a very meek, quiet, loving person. People took advantage of that.
"People fought to be close to him, people who weren't always on his side. Michael was worth more than a billion dollars. When anyone is worth that much money, there are always greedy people around them."
"I believe Michael was murdered, I felt that from the start," she added. "Not just one person was involved, rather it was a conspiracy of people."
Jackson was the "loneliest man in the world" with no real friends and isolated from his family at the time of his death – less than 12 hours after completing a rehearsal for his tour, she said.
His sister said he was not found in bed, but in the bedroom of his physician Dr Conrad Murray.
She described accompanying Jackson's children, Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and seven-year-old Prince Michael II – also known as Blanket – to see their father's body and said her brother thought he would die in his 50s.
"Michael knew he was never going to be a grey-haired old man," she said. "He didn't want to grow old."
La Toya said she was at her home close to Jackson's in Beverly Hills when she was told by her father that her brother had been taken to the UCLA Medical Centre.
While in the car on the way to the hospital she said her mother screamed down the phone "He's dead!".
"I nearly crashed my car," La Toya said. "My legs went weak. I couldn't press down on the gas pedal. I got to the wrong entrance at the hospital and was begging the security guys to help me and take my car because I was so weak and faint.
"They took me up to the area where Michael had been taken. Mother was crying and Michael's kids were crying.
"I screamed, 'Is it true?' and she said, ''Yes, he gone'.
"I couldn't stop crying."
While Jackson regularly kept up to £1 million in cash at his home, La Toya said no money or jewellery was found.
"Michael didn't keep a close eye on his finances," she said. "A lot of people made a lot of money out of Michael."
She pledged the family would file a civil lawsuit against anyone they believed responsible and push for police to bring criminal charges.
She said: "I won't rest until I find out what – and who – killed my brother."
Meanwhile, Jackson's boyhood hometown said farewell to the King of Pop at a celebration of his life and music.
More than 6,000 people took part in an upbeat memorial featuring performers singing and dancing to his hits, video montages of Jackson and comments from the Rev Jesse Jackson and people who knew Jackson when his family lived in Gary.
Local mayor, Rudy Clay, said Jackson had made the city known worldwide.
"He's going to put on those golden slippers and he's going to dance all over God's heaven," Clay told the crowd at the Steel Yard, Gary's minor league baseball park.
