"Star Wars," Harvey Weinstein, and Fraudulent Bankruptcy: In Court, the Financial Juggling of Star Film Producer Tarak Ben Ammar
Story For fifty years, this Franco-Tunisian, a friend of the greatest directors, has been traveling between Hollywood, Europe, and Africa. From Wednesday, September 10 to Friday, September 19, 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.
Tunisian producer Tarak Ben Ammar at the second edition of the El Gouna Film Festival in Egypt on September 23, 2018. PATRICK BAZ/AFP
Inevitably, coming from Los Angeles and its glitterati, the thermal shock must have been violent. At the beginning of September, Tarak Ben Ammar was still in Hollywood to oversee the American release of "Caught Stealing," the latest film by Darren Aronofsky ("Requiem for a Dream," "Black Swan," etc.), which he co-produced. On 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 microphones with Larsen effects, symbols of the budgetary negligence of the French justice system. It's not surprising, under these conditions, that the Franco-Tunisian businessman—he prefers to say "image maker" —felt 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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