Four major international banks acquitted over Parmalat fraud case

[News_Editor]

Four major international banks acquitted over Parmalat fraud case

2011-04-19 06:24:30 GMT+7 (ICT)

MILAN, ITALY (BNO NEWS) -- A Milan Court on Monday acquitted of market-rigging four major international banks and their managers over the 2003 Parmalat fraud case, ANSA news agency reported.

Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Citibank were found not guilty of charges of share-price manipulation and organizing bond issues to cover their own potential losses.

Six managers were also involved in the high-profiling case stemming to the 2003 bankruptcy of the Italian food conglomerate. Prosecutors requested jail terms ranging from a year to 16 months for them.

In addition, prosecutors demanded the seizure of assists from the four financial institutions worth an estimated $170.76 million (€120 million) as well as a fine of $1.28 million (€900,000) per bank.

However, the Court cleared the four institutions of all charges in relation to the Parmalat scandal, the biggest financial collapse in European history and also known as Europe's Enron.

In December 2003, the Italian food giant was declared bankrupt after it surfaced that a Bank of America account, supposedly holding about $5.69 billion (€4 billion), did not exist.

This led to Parmalat's downfall after amassing approximately $20.63 billion (€14.5 billion) in debts as well as the company's involvement in a fraud scandal ordered by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The case impacted world financial markets significantly. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission labeled the case as ''one of the largest and most brazen corporate financial frauds in history."

Last December, former Parmalat's founder and ex-CEO Calisto Tanzi was sentenced to 18 years in prison. He was previously sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment for market-rigging and providing false information to a stock market regulator.

In Parma, Tanzi and over 50 ex-members of Parmalat management are at the center of two other trials involving the acquisitions of mineral water company Ciapazzi and milk company Eurolat.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2011-04-19

[ParadiseLost]

Gee, what a surprise. Did anyone really expect any different outcome. The list of banks reads just like all the recent cases of (suspected) fraud, manipulation, buggery, you name it.

How I wish I had stayed in banking all those years ago when it was a stuffy, boring low paid job.

One day (hopefully) students will be taught in history about this era when banks destroyed the western capitalist system, and how big government assisted.

Perhaps by then people will not be sheep and will have taken some sort of action against these mobsters.