Parmalat founder Calisto Tanzi was jailed on Thursday on a conviction of market rigging related to the stunning collapse of the dairy empire more than seven years ago.
Police executed a warrant for Tanzi’s arrest the day after Italy’s highest court upheld Tanzi’s conviction, his lawyer and police officials said. The Rome court had reduced the sentence from 10 years to eight years and one month in prison.
Tanzi was driven away from his estate outside of Parma in a sedan with dark windows, preventing photographers and journalists waiting outside from seeing him. Financial police commander Guido Mario Geremia said Tanzi was taken to jail in Parma.
Tanzi’s lawyer Giampiero Biancolella told the Associated Press that he has already filed documents to have Tanzi released under a law that allows convicted criminals over the age of 70 to serve their sentence at home. Tanzi is 72.
“He is in a health clinic in the jail, because he is gravely ill,” Biancolella said. He declined to identify Tanzi’s illness, citing Italian privacy laws.
He said Tanzi would remain in jail until a decision could be taken on his request, which could be a matter of days.
Tanzi has been found guilty in two trials for his role in Parmalat’s collapse under €14-billion in debt.
On top of the eight-year sentence for market rigging, Tanzi was also sentenced in another more serious case to 18 years in prison by a court in Parma last December for fraudulent bankruptcy and criminal association. That conviction still faces two levels of appeal. — Sapa-AP