Business: Bernie Cleared

Court circus in Geneva

It took the twelve-member Swiss jury only 50 minutes to decide the long-pending case, and when acquittal was an nounced the Geneva courtroom erupted in applause. Then a smiling Bernie Cornfeld, 52, the bearded hustler from Brooklyn who had founded Investors Overseas Services, the bankrupt European-based mutual fund empire, repaired to a near by cafe for a victory celebration. After a four-week trial that even the presiding judge described as a "circus," Cornfeld was declared innocent of charges that he had coerced employees of I.O.S. into buying its stock...