Probe Ending on Alleged Insider Deals at Planet Hollywood

ORLANDO-Creditors alleging Robert I. Earl, British-born founder/chairman of Orlando-based Planet Hollywood International Inc., has submitted a bogus Chapter 11 reorganization plan to U.S. Bankruptcy Court will know shortly if their suspicions are on target or off the wall.

Fraud examiner Soneet R. Kapila, founding partner of Fort Lauderdale, FL-based Kapila & Co., is expected to forward his month-long report shortly to Judge Arthur B. Briskman in Orlando.

Earl; his Orlando lawyer Scott Shuker; and other Planet Hollywood officials deny the allegations. But the creditors’ lawyer, Denise Dell of Orlando-based Akerman, Senterfitt & Eidsen, has told the judge she has information that Planet Hollywood allegedly transferred several restaurants to company insiders and directors less than a year before the Oct. 15, 2001 bankruptcy filing.