MGM Said to Have Unusual Suitor

In a bizarre development, one of the nation’s most notorious financiers of the 1970s, Bernard Cornfeld, says he is teaming up with an Italian businessman on a $500-million cash offer for the famed MGM studio.

The bid, which Cornfeld says will be made Friday, comes after his partner, Giovanni Di Stefano, boasted in Milan last week that he plans to buy MGM from the French bank Credit Lyonnais, which took control of the studio after former owner Giancarlo Parretti defaulted on his loans.

MGM is not taking the bid seriously.

“We’re getting a good chuckle out of all this,” spokesman Craig Parsons said.

Known as a jet-setter and playboy, Cornfeld became famous when Investors Overseas Services, a mutual fund empire he founded, collapsed in the 1970s.

At the time, control of the company had been seized from Cornfeld by fugitive financier Robert Vesco.