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MILAN (Reuters) - A Milan judge has formally charged Parmalat founder Calisto Tanzi, 15 other executives and three financial institutions over their role in the scandal that plunged one of Italy's best-known brands into insolvency. ADVERTISEMENT Judge Cesare Tacconi sent the executives to trial on Saturday, after eight months of preliminary hearings, on charges including market-rigging, false auditing and of hindering the work of regulators. The Italian offices of Bank of America, auditors Deloitte & Touche and the former Italian affiliate of Grant Thornton were also charged with helping dairy group Parmalat mislead investors. Under Italian law, companies can stand...

Area dairy farmers fear the fallout from scandal A default by Italy's Parmalat could ruin suppliers. By Suzette Parmley Inquirer Staff Writer The financial scandal of Italian milk conglomerate Parmalat has reached around the world, threatening hundreds of dairy farms in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Millions of dollars in milk payments could be lost by the farmers if the financially troubled food company defaults on payments to suppliers. Fallout from Parmalat's woes comes as dairy farms in the two states already are disappearing at an alarming rate, in part because of two years of record-low milk prices. Pennsylvania farmers could...

A mid-level executive in the finance department of collapsed food giant Parmalat has committed suicide, Italian police have said. Alessandro Bassi, an aide to the former finance director Fausto Tonna, threw himself from a highway bridge in Parma, the company's hometown. Both Mr Tonna and Parmalat founder Calisto Tanzi are now in jail, although no charges have yet been made. Parmalat went bust after admitting 4bn euros (£2.8bn; $5bn) of false accounts. Investigations continue It is the largest financial scandal in Italian history. While Mr Bassi, 32, had been questioned as a witness by police earlier this week, he was...

Investigative magistrates are threatening to stage a direct confrontation between two of the alleged masterminds behind the Parmalat scandal this week in an attempt to trace €10bn ($12.6bn) estimated to have disappeared from the bankrupt dairy group. Investigators in Parma on Monday subjected Fausto Tonna, Parmalat's veteran chief financial officer, to a day-long grilling. They are expected on Tuesday to turn to Gian Paolo Zini, Parmalat's chief legal counsel who helped set up many of the foreign and offshore companies now under scrutiny. If there are discrepancies between their testimonies, investigative magistrates are expected to organise a direct confrontation between...

Investigators into the collapse of the Italian dairy giant Parmalat are turning the spotlight on America's big investment banks. Italian magistrates and officials from the powerful Securities and Exchange Commission are examining the role of lenders to Parmalat - which collapsed into administration last month following the disclosure of an €8 billion (£5.6bn) hole in its finances. These lenders include some of the US's largest financial institutions. An SEC source said that while at this stage an investigation did not imply wrongdoing by the investment banks, it was focusing on placements of notes and bonds in the US. But he...

<p>December 25, 2003 -- Some of the largest U.S. banks may be soon be dunked into the growing scandal at Italian dairy giant Parmalat.</p> <p>As Parmalat sinks into financial turmoil, firms like Merrill Lynch and Citigroup are being eyed for the same kind of financial shenanigans that marked earlier disasters such as Enron.</p>

ROME (AP) -- Parmalat, the Italian dairy giant, filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday as a multibillion dollar cash crunch prompted the government to pledge regulatory reforms to prevent such future financial problems. Meanwhile, prosecutors looking into the Parmalat financial scandal ordered a search of the founder's home. The Parmalat scandal exploded last week when the company acknowledged a multibillion dollar hole in its balance sheet. The tangled case has expanded as prosecutors look into whether fraud was committed on a massive scale. The company announced the bankruptcy filing in Rome. Dow Jones newswires quoted a source close to...