"Star Wars," Harvey Weinstein, and Fraudulent Bankruptcy: In Court, the Financial Juggling of Tarak Ben Ammar, Film Producer-Star
For fifty years, this Franco-Tunisian, a friend of the greatest directors, has traveled between Hollywood, Europe, and Africa. From Wednesday, September 10th to Friday, September 12th, he appeared before the Nanterre Criminal Court for alleged bankruptcy with misappropriation of assets from one of his companies, which left nearly 250 employees out of work. Story.
Tunisian producer Tarak ben Ammar poses on the red carpet during the second edition of the El Gouna Film Festival on the Red Sea in Egypt on September 23, 2018. (Photo by Patrick BAZ / EL GOUNA FILM FESTIVAL / AFP) PATRICK BAZ / AFP
Obviously, coming from Los Angeles and its glitterati, the thermal shock must have been violent. Less than a week ago, Tarak Ben Ammar was still in Hollywood to supervise the launch on American screens of "Caught Stealing " , the latest film by Daren Aranofsky ( "Black Swan" ...), which he co-produced. Wednesday, September 10, this 76-year-old cinema figure discovered the courtrooms of the Nanterre judicial court (Hauts-de-Seine), their faded walls and their feedback microphones, symbols of the budgetary negligence of the French justice system. It is not surprising, under these conditions, that the Franco-Tunisian businessman - he prefers to say "image maker" - could feel a little dizzy:
"I'm nine hours jet-lagged, so forgive me for being groggy."
A few minutes earlier, just after calling him to the bar for the first time, the president of the 15th chamber of the Nanterre criminal court, Céline Ballerini, had introduced Tarak Ben Ammar with relish: "...
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