Mike Fleming

Tomorrow brings the latest chapter in the drama over whether the exhaustive findings by bankruptcy court trustee Ronald L. Durkin should once again be made public in the case involving film financier David Bergstein and his creditors. A status conference before Bankruptcy Court Judge Barry Russell tomorrow at 2 PM may well decide whether the painstaking 371-page document (not including 21 volumes of exhibits) are once again approved for public consumption. They paint a damning picture of Bergstein, starting with the deletion of computer emails and an unwillingness to hand over computers for forensic analysis. There is also an unflattering portrait of Ronald Tutor, the billionaire owner of Miramax Films whose position at the front of the line of creditors could be called into question as a result of Durkin’s findings. Russell ordered the documents to be unsealed, but then they were quickly re-sealed following a motion filed by Bergstein to keep them private. At stake is the fate of a library of about 1300 films, and there aren’t many libraries like that that aren’t spoken for. Stay tuned.