A US federal judge has ruled that two banks and two auditors will not need to face charges over the collapse of Italian dairy firm Parmalat in 2003.
US district judge Lewis Kaplan said much or all of the alleged improper conduct took place outside of the US.
Citigroup, Bank of America, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and Grant Thornton will now not need to face charges, he said
Italian dairy firm Parmalat can be sued by shareholders in a lawsuit concerning the collapse of its predecessor, a US judge has ruled.
Parmalat Finanziaria fell in 2003 under 14 billion euros ($18.6bn; £9
A US judge has given Bank of America the go-ahead to pursue a $1bn fraud claim against Italian firm Parmalat.
The bank has accused the firm’s former management of fraud, conspiracy and lying about its finances.
The claim will not affect Paramalat’s own $10bn suit against the bank for its alleged role in the firm’s collapse
The European Commission has begun legal action against Italy over its central bank’s handling of recent bank mergers.
It comes after Dutch bank ABN Amro said the Bank of Italy tried to block its bid for Italian lender Antonveneta.
Central bank chief Antonio Fazio Bank of Italy was said to have wanted an all-Italian merger instead
ROME : Italian finance police searched Rome offices of the bank Capitalia in connection with the collapse of the food groups Cirio and Parmalat, judicial sources said.
The search was ordered by Parma’s public prosecutor and concerns the sale of the dairy group Eurolat by Cirio to Parmalat in 1999, the source added.
Parmalat founder Calisto Tanzi and his financial director Fauso Tonna have alleged to magistrates that they were forced by Capitalia chairman Cesare Geronzi to buy Eurolat at an inflated price so that the bank, formerly Banca di Roma, could recover money owed it by Cirio
Rome – A recent audit of Parmalat had found that its net debt was 14.3 billion (R130 billion), nearly eight times more than the figure it had reported months before the huge fraud scandal erupted, the dairy conglomerate said yesterday.
The fresh audit, ordered by a court-appointed administrator to discover what Parmalat’s true book-keeping showed, found that net debt for the nine-month period to September 30 stood at 14
The size of the black hole at Parmalat has spooked financial markets and the size of the black hole has led to comparisons with previous scandals at Enron and WorldCom.
Italian police have arrested five top Parmalat officials, as they widen their inquiries into the multi-billion euro fraud at the dairy giant. Former Parmalat chief financial officers Fausto Tonna and Luciano Del Soldato are among those detained