Andreas Schmid, former CEO of VIP Medienfonds, who was sentenced by a Munich court to six years in prison for tax evasion last November, was in characteristically fighting mood on a visit to Berlin this week.

At the festival to refresh old and forge new contacts, Schmid said that he had several enquiries from people interested in using his knowhow in the field of financing and packaging.

'Up to now the reaction has been very positive,' he observed. 'I hope everything will be clearer when I have the written reasons for the judgement in two or three weeks time.'

Schmid, who had been allowed to leave prison after last November's sentence, will receive written notice of the reasons for the judgement and then have four weeks to lodge an appeal. An official reaction to an appeal would be likely to not come before the end of 2008 when Schmid would then learn whether he has to return to prison or see the case re-opened.

He was in detention for over two years following his arrest in Sept 2005.

'I want to make an analysis of everything that happened in the past two years and have to see what the status quo is at VIP,' Schmid continued, referring to the increasingly contentious war of words between VIP and the UK's Brass Hat (see Screendaily.com, Feb 9, 2008).

'I regret very much what is happening to VIP at the moment because I have the feeling that too little focus is being directed on the operative business.'

He suggested that there was a need to find 'a sensible solution because so much has been destroyed in the past two years. I would like to see VIP back on a normal course where we are talking again about film, about the film library and its exploitation. That's what should be to the fore.'

'Unlike in the past, the biggest amount of my time will be spent now with my family because there was definitely too little time given to them before.'