Universal Express Inc fka USXP

[jking1999]

The following article was published shortly after RA 'bought' the Jackson collection. It is based on conversations with RA and Vaccaro. Based on its proximity to the original purchase, and the fact that info is provided by both Vaccaro and RA, I'd say that the info is probably as close to the truth that we'll ever know.

It has some very interesting information in it about the collection, about the purchase agreement, and other stuff:

Jackson 5 mementos up for bid

http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2006/12/18/story4.html

According to this story, RA bought the collection from Vaccaro's son. (A little strange, since clearly Henry Vaccaro is still the one involved, and not his son.)

Altomare plans to auction off most of the items - save for 14 unreleased Jackson 5 songs from the 1970s that he wants to release as a record. (He does mention master tapes as part of the collection, but says nothing else about them - no emphasis at all on any real value for the master tapes.)

The collection could fetch between $40 million and $50 million, Altomare said. (He began hyping this right out of the box).

Vaccaro took over the warehouse through legal proceedings after the Jackson family failed to pay a $60,000 storage bill. Michael Jackson sued him in California federal court for $10 million, but the case was dismissed in January because the King of Pop didn't pursue it. (Interesting - indicates why RA settled with MJ - MJ didn't lose his suit, he just didn't follow through on it, thus it would have been dismissed. The ownership, at least of the MJ items in the collection, was never settled in court.)

Universal Express paid $150,000 up front and will pay $66,000 a month to the seller until the $5.8 million is paid off, he said. (I wonder how many more of the 66K per month payments Vaccaro will actually see.)

Universal Express and Altomare filed a federal lawsuit against the SEC over the naked short selling issue, but that case was dismissed. Although his first appeal was rejected, Altomare vows to bring it back before a judge. (RA finally admits that his suit against the SEC went nowhere. He has yet to file a new suit.)