LOS ANGELES – When he surrendered to the Santa Barbara County sheriff last week, Michael Jackson resembled an aging Joan Crawford, pale, frail and weighing 120 pounds.

Mr. Jackson’s financial well-being appears equally fragile. With each successive record costing more and earning less than the last, he is finding it increasingly difficult to maintain his lavish lifestyle.

By any stretch, Mr. Jackson, who is 45, must be considered wealthy. But according to accounts of his close advisers and industry friends and court records, he is also an extravagant spender whose wealth is being consumed by an appetite for monkeys, Ferris wheels and surgery.

A lawsuit against Mr. Jackson said he was tethered to a boulder of debt, totaling near $200 million that comes due in several years. Moreover, there are at least four liens on his 2,700-acre Neverland ranch, and even the State of California laid claim to the property to force Mr. Jackson to pay his taxes. Most of his assets are from his half-ownership of the Beatles catalog, valued conservatively at $272 million, which he has used to secure some loans.

Mr. Jackson has at times mortgaged the royalties to other songs he owns to raise cash. And he is the subject of hundreds of lawsuits. Defending himself against charges that he molested a 12-year-old boy, which he has called “a big lie,” could cost him millions.

So troubled are his finances, his advisers tried to limit his spending to $1 million a month this summer, said a person apprised of Mr. Jackson’s situation.

It is unclear whether Mr. Jackson himself paid the $3 million bail when he was booked last week on charges that could send him to prison for 10 years or more.

Nevertheless, Mr. Jackson is convinced, people who know him say, that future records will earn enough to pay off his creditors and rescue his ragged reputation.

“He wants to be as relevant now as he was when he was 5 years old, as he was when he was 20,” said Bobby Colomby, the former drummer of the rock band Blood, Sweat and Tears who has known Mr. Jackson since he was a young performer and was an executive producer of the Jackson family’s “Destiny” album. “But in the process, he got lost,” Mr. Colomby said. “He probably thinks, `This press is good. I’ll go to court and win and be on top again.’ ”

In “Living With Michael Jackson,” a documentary broadcast this year, Mr. Jackson told the interviewer Martin Bashir that he was worth more than $1 billion. As if to prove his point, the singer is shown in the documentary spending an estimated $6 million on garish furnishings and paintings in a shopping spree.

But the person apprised of Mr. Jackson’s finances said Mr. Jackson returned the merchandise days later. Management at the shop, Regis Gallerie, declined comment. Stuart Backerman, Mr. Jackson’s spokesman, called the story fantasy.

“Six million dollars is way out of line,” he said. “It’s the stuff of legend.” Mr. Backerman said he did not know if Mr. Jackson had returned any of the merchandise.

Mr. Backerman would not comment about Mr. Jackson’s finances, saying, “I’m not his accountant.” Mr. Jackson’s longtime lawyer, John Branca, and his business adviser Charles Koppelman, did not return repeated calls seeking comment.

Mr. Jackson’s expenses range from the odd to the pedestrian. According to court records, some of these in 2000 include $200,000 for “Neverland Rides”; $15,000 to a dermatologist, Arnold Klein; $380,728 for insurance; and, in 2001, $75.62 to maintain a Slurpee machine.

Mr. Jackson was looking to put Neverland on the market this year, said a real estate agent familiar with the deal. He was asking for $50 million, but there were no takers. “A Ferris wheel,” the real estate agent said, “it’s very difficult to put a replacement value on that.”

Liens are held against the house by Sony Music, in connection with a loan, and by a German concert promoter, who says Mr. Jackson reneged on a series of charity concerts. The State of California dropped its lien in February after Mr. Jackson paid back taxes, according to the secretary of state.

Then there are the lawsuits. In 1993, he settled for millions with a 13-year-old boy who said he was molested by Mr. Jackson. Last January, the art auction house Sotheby’s sued Mr. Jackson for $1.6 million for backing out on the purchase of two 19th-century French paintings.

In March, he was ordered to pay $5.3 million to a concert promoter who said Mr. Jackson had reneged on a deal to perform at charity concerts. And three months later Mr. Jackson settled for an undisclosed sum with his former financial adviser, Myung-Ho Lee, who said he was not paid for his services.

Pierce O’Donnell, who represented Mr. Lee and agreed to the settlement fearing Mr. Jackson would be bankrupt in 18 months, said, “We could get in line for Neverland, but there is a long line ahead of us.”

The lawsuit said Mr. Jackson terminated their relationship. Mr. Jackson’s lawyer for the lawsuit, Zia Modabber, did not return calls.

Most musicians earn money two ways: record sales and touring. But since 1991, the last four albums released by Mr. Jackson have sold 16 million records combined in the United States, a far cry from the 26 million copies of his best-selling “Thriller,” which was released in 1982, according to Soundscan, which tracks record sales. And while Mr. Jackson continues to perform, he holds fewer concerts. Last week, Mr. Jackson released his latest greatest hits, “Number Ones,” but it is still too early to tell if the controversy will hamper sales.

Mr. Jackson has earned a great deal of money through his half ownership of a music catalog that includes his hits and more than 250 songs by the Beatles. According to Mr. Lee’s lawsuit, Mr. Jackson’s share was valued at $272 million on Dec. 23, 1998. Associates say it is worth more today.

Mr. Lee’s lawsuit said he helped Mr. Jackson borrow about $230 million. Much of that money was used to refinance earlier loans. According to the lawsuit, Mr. Jackson used part of a $140 million loan in 1998 to pay off an earlier $90 million debt and, in 2000, borrowed $60 million, paying off a $30 million 1999 loan. It is not clear how much of the $200 million has been repaid.

Executives at Sony Music Entertainment, which owns the other half of the catalog, have said that Mr. Jackson used his share of the catalog as collateral for one of the loans. If Mr. Jackson defaults, they have said, Sony has the right to buy his share.

Mr. Jackson owns other music catalogs of lesser value, and has used those to borrow, as well. In 2001, for instance, he used one such catalog to borrow from Royalty Advance Funding, a Beverly Hills company.

The company collected the royalties from the catalog until Mr. Jackson was able to pay back the loan, which he did, said Parviz Omidvar, the owner.

“He paid his loan,” Mr. Omidvar said. “He may come back again considering the circumstances. We’re waiting for him.”

Feeling the pressure of 2001’s expensive album “Invincible” and trying to get out of his Sony contract, Mr. Jackson rented a bus last year and rode around Harlem with the Rev. Al Sharpton, calling Thomas D. Mottola, then chairman of the Sony Music Group, “devilish.” The publicity did little to ignite sales.

“His record sales speak for themselves,” said a close adviser to Mr. Jackson who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Even before the child molestation charges, people were starting to move away. The Tommy Mottola matter didn’t help things.”

Michael Jackson is still Michael Jackson, and there is no shortage of financiers willing to help him.

Mr. Jackson has become close to a Florida businessman, Al Malnik, who was a former legal adviser to Meyer Lansky, the mobster who died in 1983. Mr. Malnik, owns Title Loans of America, a national chain of stores that charge high interest rates.

Reached at his Florida home, Mr. Malnik said he had nothing to do with arranging Mr. Jackson’s bail and had not extended him loans, as some reports have suggested.

“Michael is a friend,” Mr. Malnik said. “I have in the past given him financial advice, but not in an official capacity.”

Over the years, Mr. Jackson’s friends and fans have shrunk away. Gone are the days when his whims and eccentricities were to be endured by record executives. Gone are his unbelievable wealth and his sure-fire ability to deliver the hits.

“Michael Jackson has become a traffic accident, a spectacle,” Mr. Colomby, the producer, said. “I’m not an apologist for the guy, but this is all so unbelievably sad.”