FBI Launches Probe of Parretti : MGM Requested the Investigation of the Former Studio Owner

The FBI is examining alleged criminal transactions by former MGM studio owner Giancarlo Parretti, according to people familiar with the case.

The probe comes at the request of MGM’s new management, controlled by the French bank Credit Lyonnais. Thomas R. Parker, assistant special agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, confirmed that a case has been opened.

“We have received the results of an internal investigation conducted by MGM officials,” Parker said, adding that the MGM referral “contains allegations of possible criminal activity by Mr. Parretti. We are currently in the process of reviewing that information and discussing it with the U.S. attorney’s office.”

Valentina Parretti, the financier’s daughter, said Tuesday from Rome that her father was unreachable. Giancarlo Parretti has previously denied any wrongdoing.

Others familiar with the matter said the FBI is examining whether Parretti may have defrauded Credit Lyonnais and MGM’s former stockholders by improperly shifting cash or other assets from the studio to the scores of other companies he controlled around the world.

Parretti borrowed heavily from the bank when he purchased the studio from financier Kirk Kerkorian for $1.3 billion in 1990, renaming it MGM-Pathe Communications.

Parretti kept borrowing from Credit Lyonnais to keep MGM-Pathe afloat. The bank was believed to be owed more than $1 billion when it seized control of the film company from Parretti last year.

Parretti’s successors at MGM have alleged that he engaged in a range of self-dealing--including selling acreage in France to a company controlled by his wife at a price drastically below market.

Sources at MGM said FBI agents met at the studio’s offices in Culver City on Sept. 22 with company President Charles R. Meeker and aides, including Lawrence G. Lawler, a security consultant to MGM who formerly headed the Los Angeles FBI office.

Meeker referred questions to MGM’s Co-Chief Executive Dennis C. Stanfill, who is traveling this week in Europe and unreachable, according to his secretary.