Katherine Jackson's new business partner has threatened to sue the executors of the King of Pop's estate for allegedly attempting to discredit the book he has co-authored about Michael Jackson.
The Jackson family matriarch teamed up with Howard Mann to publish a coffee table book called Never Can Say Goodbye: The Katherine Jackson Archives, which went on sale this week (begs21Jun10) to mark the first anniversary of the singer's death (25Jun10).
Mann recently came under fire from a lawyer representing the superstar's estate, insisting the businessman had no right to make money from Michael Jackson's legacy.
Howard Weitzman, an attorney for the Jackson estate, accused him of "using his relationship with Mrs. Jackson to infringe upon Michael Jackson's copyrights" and "exploit any estate assets", vowing to take whatever action is necessary to prevent him from unlawfully profiting".
But Mann's lawyer has fired back in the war of words and is now threatening legal action against the estate officials for bad-mouthing his client's firm and attempting to damage the book's sale potential.
Mann's legal representative tells TMZ.com, "The comments by the lawyers for the Estate of Michael Jackson are designed to create fear and ambiguity and may impede our ability to maximize the profits that Vintage Pop (the publisher) and the beneficiaries of the Estate are entitled to enjoy.
"These actions are torturous interference and will NOT be accepted and will result (in) litigation to recover the damages against our company."