The Collapse of Italian Dairy Giant Parmalat (2004-2005)

[The Lawspeaker]

2004-2005: Some of the world’'s most powerful banks could be implicated in Europe'’s biggest corporate scandal: the collapse of Italian dairy giant Parmalat. “While the farmers were milking their cows, Mr Tanzi, founder of Parmalat, was milking the Italians,” complains one farm worker bitterly. Thousands of jobs are now on the line as investigators struggled to trace Parmalat’s missing billions. Gianfranco Bocchi, Parmalat’s chief accountant, is thought to have been responsible for falsifying the accounts. His wife Ilaria believes he was forced to go along with his bosses’ plans: “I think he was asked to do certain things and out of loyalty, thought he would do it to save the company,” she says. “I don’t think his intention was to defraud.” However this comes as scant consolation to betrayed investors. Lawyer Carlo Zauli believes that Parmalat’'s executives were aided by some of the world’s biggest banks. He claims to have tracked down some of Parmalat’'s missing billions to an offshore Bank of America account. And as prosecutors probe Parmalat'’s affairs, the role other companies played in its collapse can only come under closer scrutiny.

[The Lawspeaker]

If it wasn't for all those people who had invested their savings in them and thus lost everything, collapsing big companies or multinationals is always something to be celebrated. Their collapse gives fresh air to SME's and artisans.

[Crimean]

If it wasn't for all those people who had invested their savings in them and thus lost everything, collapsing big companies or multinationals is always something to be celebrated. Their collapse gives fresh air to SME's and artisans.

Very true for Russia. There is information that our government is destroying and ruining private farms, preventing them from competing with large agroholdings (agroholdings would not have withstood this competition, both in prices and in quality).
By the way, Parmalat is still alive and sold here. For the sake of saving such a "ship" a big business is ready for anything.

[renaissance12]

I like this..()

""""While the farmers were milking their cows, Mr Tanzi, founder of Parmalat, was milking the Italians"""""

20 bilions euro bond.. ( 90 % in the hands of Italians ... vanished ...... personaly i lost 15.000 € )

[The Lawspeaker]

Very true for Russia. There is information that our government is destroying and ruining private farms, preventing them from competing with large agroholdings (agroholdings would not have withstood this competition, both in prices and in quality).
By the way, Parmalat is still alive and sold here. For the sake of saving such a "ship" a big business is ready for anything.

Personally, I'd like to see such companies all wiped out and that includes Dutch firms like Unilever, Philips (which is no longer the family owned company it used to be), Shell or other such mega-corporations that no longer have any ties to their surroundings. They are destroying the economies of any country they occupy due to tax avoidance and swindling people of their hard earned money. Case in point:

I like this..()

""""While the farmers were milking their cows, Mr Tanzi, founder of Parmalat, was milking the Italians"""""

20 bilions euro bond.. ( 90 % in the hands of Italians ... vanished ...... personaly i lost 15.000 € )

[Cristiano viejo]

At least now Parma will not smell to cheese

[The Lawspeaker]

At least now Parma will not smell to cheese

You'd be surprised. The area is still, very much, Italy's dairy region and Parmalat is now in the hands of a French multinational, Lactalis, that, according to some, is strangling French and Italian agriculture. The only real solution for these companies is all to collapse. Research can move to independent corporative and taxpayer-financed university research organisations that work with the farmers.

[MinervaItalica]

Parmigiano is still widely produced in my region and is one of the most counterfeited products in the world.

[Crimean]

Personally, I'd like to see such companies all wiped out and that includes Dutch firms like Unilever, Philips (which is no longer the family owned company it used to be), Shell or other such mega-corporations that no longer have any ties to their surroundings. They are destroying the economies of any country they occupy due to tax avoidance and swindling people of their hard earned money.

The mechanism of limiting monopolization and preventing the merging of big business and the state, is in the direct people's control of the state. Under the party system (alien and imposed on European nations), everything always will be strictly the opposite. All this has been known for more than 100 years.

[The Lawspeaker]

Parmigiano is still widely produced in my region and is one of the most counterfeited products in the world.

Wines are protected under the IGT (Indicazione geografica tipica) but there is no such protection for cheeses ? In France - both (as well as butter and I believe several other products) are covered under the AOC (appellation d'origine contrôlée).