As Michael Jackson’s doctor Conrad Murray faces jail, the star’s fortunes have soared since his death.

For he has now been named as the world’s top dead earner for a second straight year by Forbes magazine. His name has made a staggering $170 million for his estate over the past 12 months.

Dr Murray’s manslaughter trial in Los Angeles has been accompanied by a flurry of Michael Jackson events, including a new Cirque du Soleil show and a tribute concert in Britain last month

The King of Pop’s second posthumous album – appropriately entitled Immortal – is due out later this month, and will presumably not be damaged by the surge in publicity over Dr Murray’s trial.

“In a commercial society hooked on celebrity status, this death-boosting fortune based on reputation, is predictable, although ironic,” said professor of management Diane Swanson of Kansas State University.

“But this observation in no way detracts from Michael Jackson’s immense talents.”

Dr Murray was found guilty on Monday over the rock king’s death on June 5, 2009, from an overdose of powerful sedatives, including the clinical anaesthetic propofol.

Jackmson was in Los Angeles rehearsing for a series of planned comeback concerts in London – intended to resurrect his career and reputation, torpedoed half a decade earlier by child molestation charges.

In the final years of his life, Jackson’s finances were widely reported to be in chaos, with the singer facing foreclosure on his famed Neverland Ranch and struggling with debts of roughly $500 million.

But the months following his untimely demise saw soaring music sales, the blockbuster movie This is It – based on the rehearsals he was attending when he died – and an array of commercial spin-offs.

The key dates in life and death of world King of Pop

August 29, 1958: Michael Jackson born in Gary, Indiana.

August 1962: Singing debut with his brothers, The Jackson Five.

March 1969: First Jackson Five contract with Motown Records, Detroit’s black-owned record label.

1970: launch of solo career alongside that of the Jackson Five.

December 1982: Release of Thriller album, whose seven hits included Billie Jean and Beat It, pushing sales to 50 million copies worldwide.

1984: Michael Jackson’s face gets burned during filming for a Pepsi ad.

1988: His autobiography Moonwalk is published.

August 1993: A father accuses Michael Jackson of molesting his 13-year-old son, but settles out of court.

May 1994-February 1996: Marriage to Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis.

November 1996-October 1999: Marriage to Debbie Rowe, a 37-year-old nurse with whom he has two children, Prince Michael and Paris Michael Katherine.

November 19, 2002: Scandal after Michael Jackson dangles his third son, nine-month-old Prince Michael II, from a Berlin hotel balcony.

February 3, 2003: In British TV documentary Living with Michael Jackson, he claims never to have abused a child, merely to have shared his bed.

November 18, 2003: Police raid Jackson’s Neverland ranch in California.

November 20, 2003: Michael Jackson is arrested on several counts of child molestation. He is held briefly and then released on bail.

January 16, 2004: He pleads not guilty during his first appearance amid a media circus.

June 13, 2005: He is acquitted on all charges against him.

March 5, 2009: Michael Jackson announces a series of comeback concerts in London, his first major shows for more than a decade.

May 20, 2009: Michael Jackson delays comeback shows. Concert organisers say the singer’s health is “fantastic.”

June 25, 2009: Michael Jackson dies in Los Angeles after an apparent cardiac arrest. The Los Angeles coroner says the next day that after an initial autopsy that there was “no indication... of foul play.”

August 28, 2009: Coroners rule Michael Jackson’s death a homicide, saying “acute intoxication” from propofol was the primary cause of death.

October 27, 2009: His concert movie This Is It released.

February 8, 2010: Doctor Conrad Murray is charged with involuntary manslaughter in Los Angeles. He pleads not guilty.

September 27, 2011: Dr Murray goes on trial in Los Angeles. The jury is shown a picture of Michael Jackson’s body on a gurney draped in a sheet, and played an audio recording of the star speaking, apparently heavily drugged.

November 7: Dr Murray is found guilty of Michael Jackson’s manslaughter.