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February 25, 2007

According to recently filed papers in federal bankruptcy court, former Four Star principal Ronald I. Anson is seeking to prevent one of his largest creditors from accessing and releasing information from several personal computers. The former Four Star principal claims the computers contain sensitive communications protected by attorney- client and privacy privileges.

Anson’s computers were seized at his home last year by the U.S. Marshal’s office after Credit Suisse First Boston Mortgage Capital was granted a court order to collect on a $16 million judgment it obtained against the former Four Star Chief Financial Officer. The dispute stems from a real estate loan the banking giant made to Anson and other Four Star principals.

The computer hard drives (containing more than 6,000 pages of documents) are being analyzed by a federal mediation judge. Credit Suisse recently struck an agreement (subject to court approval) with the Trustee in Anson’s bankruptcy case to proceed with selling personal property recovered at Anson’s home. The deal would also allow CSFB to proceed with obtaining and sharing data with the Trustee from five computers that were among the seized items.

In a brief to the court, Anson’s attorney wrote: “Debtor (Anson) has a valid Fifth-Amendment privilege against disclosure of the information on his computers. The United States attorney’s office continues to investigate his financial affairs related to alleged tax violations and possible gambling activities on said computers.”

Credit Suisse attorneys assert that they’re being protective of possible privileged information on Anson’s computers and point out they obtained the help of a mediation judge to review the computers to determine what information might in fact be privileged.

In a declaration filed with the court, CSFB attorney Peter Csato emphasized that the federal mediation judge’s work was put on hold after Anson filed for bankruptcy in August of 2006. CSFB now wants the court to allow the mediation judge to resume his review of the computers in order to establish Anson’s “assets and liabilities, the transfer of assets, business and financial transactions and gambling activities on said computers.”

Credit Suisse attorneys also maintain that Anson gave false testimony about his assets at a judgment debtor’s exam and cite an appraisers report valuing some of Anson’s art collection at up to $200,000. According to a hearing transcript, Anson had characterized the value of his art collection as "insignificant."

A hearing on the dispute between Credit Suisse and Anson has been scheduled for March 7th.

In other news, according to court filings the Trustee in Anson’s bankruptcy is seeking to abandon interest in Anson’s Del Mar California home. Trustee Heide Kurtz had planned to sell the home on behalf of Anson’s bankruptcy estate to help satisfy creditors. The expected sale price was more than $2.6 million.

But in a newly filed motion, the Trustee says the home is over encumbered by creditor liens and is therefore of "inconsequential value and benefit" to Anson’s bankruptcy estate. Court records show more than $30 million in creditor liens encumber Anson’s Del Mar property.