London, July 12 - Pop legend Michael Jackson's elder sister La Toya has claimed that the singer was murdered by people conspiring to lay their hands on his $1.6 billion assets.

'Michael was murdered, and we don't think just one person was involved. Rather, it was a conspiracy of people. I feel it was all about money. Michael was worth well over a billion in music publishing assets and somebody killed him for that. He was worth more dead than alive,' she said in a four-hour interview to the News of the World.

La Toya, 53, however, refused to name people involved and said: 'I can't say who I believe is responsible as I don't want to jeopardize the police investigation.'

She also said that Jackson feared he could be targeted in a conspiracy.

'A couple of years ago, Michael told me he was worried that people were out to get him. He said that 'they're gonna kill me for my publishing. They want my catalogues and they're gonna kill me for these',' she said.

'Michael was being controlled.