Former Parmalat chairperson Calisto Tanzi, being investigated for alleged fraud at the food giant, has implicated the head of a leading Italian bank in several acquisitions, the newspaper Corriere della Sera alleged on Monday.
Tanzi had alleged that he paid too much for a company under pressure from Capitalia because he owed the bank money, the report said.
It said Tanzi had told investigating magistrates that Parmalat’s overvalued purchase of a company controlled by another food group, Cirio, had been carried out under the direction of Cesare Geronzi, who at the time headed Banca di Roma, now known as Capitalia.
Cirio has been in bankruptcy proceedings since last summer.
”Several years ago I bought Eurolat on indications from the Banca di Roma and in particular from its chairman, Geronzi,” Tanzi alleged to investigators looking into the collapse of the Parmalat empire and the apparent disappearance of an estimated â,¬10-billion.
Tanzi, according to a transcript of his testimony, alleged that Geronzi had asked him to seal the deal at 650-billion lire (â,¬336-million), adding that ”we were not in a position to refuse because of our exposure to Banca di Roma”.
Capitalia, Italy’s fourth-largest bank, later challenged Tanzi’s assertions, as well as those by former Parmalat finance director Fausto Tonna, saying they were aimed at ”attenuating their own responsibility”, which it added was ”humanly understandable”.
The bank also released favourable opinions on the Eurlat transaction from analysts at Credit Suisse/First Boston, Credit Lyonnais and Morgan Stanley.
The Parmalat founder also mentioned Geronzi in the acquisitions of the beverage and mineral water activities of the Ciarrapcio group in early 2002 at a price he said was ”considerably above their actual value”.
There again, he added, Capitalia was creditor for both the buyer and the seller in the transaction.
Parmalat at the time was in debt to the bank for between â,¬430-million and â,¬470-million, according to documents quoted by Corriere della Sera. — Sapa-AFP