1 week Ago By Rob Port
MINOT — Since the apparent collapse of his businesses, Epic Companies founder Todd Berning has disappeared from the public eye. Once a frequent presence in the news and on social media, promoting his business projects, lobbying government officials for tax incentives, and even hosting a podcast, once news broke of his company's financial woes he seemingly vanished. ADVERTISEMENT So much so that even those seeking litigation against him have struggled to find him.
"Despite searching West Fargo, Minot, and Minnesota, court servers were unable to find and serve a court summons on Todd Berning, president and founder of the now-defunct Epic Companies, which developed more than 25 large properties stretching across North Dakota," Forum reporter Wendy Reuer wrote on Sept. 28. This evasion has lent an air of intrigue to the already sensational collapse of his various enterprises that sprawled across North Dakota.
I'm sure I'm not alone in the news media in hearing dozens and dozens of rumors, from government officials and former Epic employees and random members of the public, about where Berning has gone. I've heard Minnesota. Arizona.
I've even been told, with varying degrees of assurance, that he's left the country. The truth, it seems, is more prosaic than that. At least this Friday night, Berning was nowhere more exotic than the Aces Lounge & Casino in Minot, Berning's hometown and where a number of his companies are (or were) headquartered (at least on paper).
"Rob, I don't know if you care or not but I'm at Aces Bar in Minot right now and Todd Berning is here," a Minot-based reader wrote me on Friday evening. "I wasn't sure if it was him at first but he's wearing a blue or black hat with the initials TB. No joke.
" Attached to the message were these photos showing Berning wearing a baseball cap and hooded sweatshirt while seated in conversation with another man. "Bold to still be wearing his TB hat," another observer messaged me. I wrote about Berning's disappearing act in October, arguing then that it was time for him to face the music.
Months later, what caused the collapse of his businesses is still mostly a mystery. ADVERTISEMENT A confounding one. All the more so because Berning who, again, was once almost ubiquitous in local news media, has gone silent.
Even despite the significant public implications of the failure, Berning's businesses are (or were) private entities. We in news media can't just file a public records request to get information. We have no subpoena power.
All we can report on is what insiders are willing to tell us, and what is revealed in the proceedings before judges and other public officials. The public wants to know more about what happened to Epic. Given the scale at which Berning and his partners accepted various forms of public incentives, we all deserve to know more.
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