(ContraCostaTimes) - The bankruptcy trustee tasked with overseeing the insolvency of high-end wine purveyor Premier Cru, confirmed Monday he received a secret computer from the store's owner and hired the company's technology specialist to help wade through the complicated accounting system.

The trustee's attorney asked federal Judge William Lafferty to allow him to employ Brian Nishi, the IT technician for Premier Cru for more than 20 years, and the in-house tech since 2008.

"He's vitally important to the estate," said attorney Mark Bostick, who is representing trustee Michael Kasolas, at a Monday hearing in Oakland.

Jilted customers allege the Berkeley business was a front for a wine Ponzi scheme. More than 9,000 customers are owed wine or refunds, according to the bankruptcy court records. Last month, Premier Cru filed for bankruptcy, claiming it owed $70 million to wine consumers, while only possessing $7 million in assets.

Many of the customers owed wine purchased wine futures, where they would pay money up front for wine that was not yet bottled.

On Monday, Bostick confirmed that Premier Cru owner John Fox had turned over a computer that operated outside the business' main accounting system to the trustee, and a copy of the hard drive had been made.

With Nishi's services, he could generate reports, for example, on the "status of each recorded bottle of wine on hand, it's identity and location, its cost, sales orders relating to it, among other reports," the trustee's other attorney Tracy Green wrote.

Nishi was never paid his final paycheck of $2,500, but would waive the claim if retained, Bostick said. If allowed to be employed, Nishi would receive $100 an hour dating back to Jan. 19 when he began assisting Kasolas.

Lafferty said due to possible criminal implications, there may be a time when the "principals" are no longer cooperative. However, he did not grant the employment until other issues had been worked out.

Meanwhile, it appears Premier Cru had been selling large amounts of wine last year to other fine wine companies, in the months before its bankruptcy filing.