Los Angeles, California - 17 years after his death, Michael Jackson is once again the talk of the town: as his biopic rolls into theaters, shocking new allegations are being made against the King of Pop.

Four siblings from New Jersey – three brothers and a sister – filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Los Angeles in February, alleging that the Thriller singer manipulated and abused them and that his followers willingly facilitated his assaults.

This week, Edward Joseph Cascio, Dominic Savini Cascio, Marie-Nicole Porte, and Aldo Cascio gave an extensive interview to the New York Times.

In it, they describe Jackson's alleged abuse in great detail and accuse his estate of legal manipulation.

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"Michael Jackson was a serial child predator who, over the course of more than a decade, drugged, raped and sexually assaulted each of the Plaintiffs, beginning when some of them were as young as seven or eight," the lawsuit states, as reported by Variety.

Disturbingly, it adds that "Jackson's attacks on these siblings went on for extended periods, including in locations around the world and when Jackson and his children were guests in Plaintiffs' family home."

According to the lawsuit, Jackson allegedly manipulated and brainwashed each of the siblings throughout their childhood "without the knowledge of the others or their parents".

The allegations and lawsuit, meanwhile, have been brushed off by representatives of the Jackson estate as a "desperate money grab", claiming that the Cascio family demanded funds from the estate to keep their allegations from becoming public.

The major New York Times interview with the siblings was published on the same day that the Jackson biopic Michael premiered in theaters.

In it, Jaafar Jackson (29) plays his own world-famous uncle. While his performance earned praise, many critics slammed the film for being too superficial and not touching on the dark sides and scandals of Jackson's life.