The businessman Calisto Tanzi, who turned the small family-run dairy business into the international food powerhouse Parmalat, died Saturday at the age of 83. As a result of the collapse of the company he controls, 35,000 shareholders suffered losses. It was the most famous financial scandal in recent years in Italy.
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Calisto Tanzi died of pneumonia in a hospital in Parma, a city in central Italy where he made a fortune according to his family.
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How Parmalat fell
Parmalat collapsed in 2003 when a EUR 14 billion hole was discovered in its balance sheet, wiping out the savings of thousands of small investors. It was the largest bankruptcy in post-war Europe.
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At the time of its fall, Parmalat employed 36,000 people in 30 countries. 35,000 people who invested in the company’s securities lost money. Bankruptcy echoed loudly in banking, sports, tourism and entertainment. It found the company had inflated profits for years, and the collapse sparked lawsuits across the globe against dozens of banks.
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Tanzi has been accused of embezzling hundreds of millions of euros and bringing about the collapse of a company worth 14 billion euros, and then sentenced to prison.
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Calisto Tanzi – who he was
Calisto Tanzi was born in 1938 in the town of Collecchio in the Emilia-Romagna region, in the province of Parma. At 22, he took over his grandfather’s dairy business. More than four decades later, the Parmalat group had around 130 factories worldwide to produce milk, yogurt and other goods. His business also included a premier league soccer club, a travel company, and a television network. He also sponsored ski teams.
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The crisis erupted in 2003 when the company determined that a four billion euro bank account owned by the Cayman Islands unit did not exist, forcing management to seek bankruptcy protection. A criminal fraud investigation was then launched.
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Calisto Tanzi died at the age of 83. Archival photoPAP / EPA
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Authorities discovered that Tanzi hid works of art by such masters as Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh in friends’ homes. 55 works of art found were auctioned off in 2019. Pursuant to the court’s decision, the money was transferred to the debtors, i.e. the former shareholders of Parmalat.
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Parmalat collapsed in 2003 Parmalat
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photo-source">Main photo source: PAP / EPA
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