A US Bankruptcy Court judge here will decide by Apr. 1 if the nine-year-old, locally based firm, which once had a staff of 7,800 employees, can do a financing deal for $210 million with Greenwich Capital Financial Products of Greenwich, CT. Greenwich Capital is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group.

The money would be used to shave some of the company's debt and re-start its sales machine. Sunterra hopes to be out of Chapter 11 by year end, relying on its $1 billion in assets stated on its bankruptcy petition. But lawyers representing the creditors aren't taking that projection to the bank.

Jay Alix & Associates of Southfield, MI, a turnaround specialist, is guiding Sunterra through its financial morass. The strategy is to sell off at least 30 of the firm's 89 resorts within the next nine months. Two time shares already have been sold.