Parmalat’s New Chief to Meet With Bankers

The turnaround expert appointed to sort out the financial woes of Italian dairy giant Parmalat will confer with Italy’s leading banks today in a bid to try to save the ailing company, stung by one of Europe’s biggest financial scandals and the arrest of its founder and other top executives.

Italian state TV reported Sunday evening that Enzo Bondi would hold his first meetings with banking officials. How new lines of credit might be established was expected to be on the agenda.

Bondi was put in charge at Parmalat after the company acknowledged Dec. 19 that its Bonlat subsidiary in the Cayman Islands didn’t have the nearly $5 billion in a Bank of America account that it had reported in September. The bank has said the letter confirming the money was forged.

The interrogations that investigators hope will help shed light on what could be a multibillion-dollar hole in Parmalat’s balance sheet were expected to resume today.

Rome daily La Repubblica said a financial consultant would aid prosecutors in questioning Fausto Tonna, a former Parmalat finance director. The newspaper said Tonna, who was picked up Wednesday, had reportedly told authorities he was ready to help them reconstruct the complex trails of funds.

La Repubblica quoted a Parmalat accountant, Gianfranco Bocchi, as telling prosecutors in Milan that he was ordered by another ex-finance director, Luciano Del Soldato, to destroy several accounting files. Instead the accountant, who was picked up Wednesday, handed the files over to authorities, the newspaper said.

Del Soldato was questioned Friday.

Prosecutors say Parmalat’s jailed founder, Calisto Tanzi, has admitted diverting as much as $620 million from Parmalat to his family’s tourism businesses.

Investigators are reportedly on the trail of billions of dollars that might have moved through overseas banks or other financial shelters.

The investigation is widely expected to gain momentum with the scheduled return from a holiday today of Milan prosecutor Francesco Greco, who reportedly has been in contact with prosecutors in the United States over the case.

Judicial sources confirmed Saturday that authorities searched the Park Avenue offices of an attorney for Parmalat in New York.