Parmalat - The Fall of a Dairy Giant

In Italy, most of the large businesses, although they were public companies, were essentially controlled by families.

This ensured that all the important matters were kept within the family and not revealed to the public. This gave more scope for frauds of the nature of Parmalat. For instance, it was very difficult for investigators in the Parmalat case to separate the funds that went from Parmalat to the company's subsidiaries and those that went to Tanzi's family businesses. Analysts said the Italian idea of corporate governance was very different from that of the rest of the world, and that most of the business transactions were shrouded in secrecy...

He was a regular churchgoer and he and his family were never ostentatious in the display of their wealth.

However, if the charges against Tanzi were proved after the case went on trial, he faced 15 years in jail, which was the term awarded for fraudulent bankruptcy. It was estimated that Parmalat owed between €10 million and €13 million to creditors, including banks and bondholders. Analysts said that it was up to Bondi to unravel the finances of the company and honor its debt payments. However people feared that Bondi would give priority to banks over bond holders, as he was appointed by them and represented their interests...