Parretti Loses Bid to Reopen MGM Case

Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti lost another legal battle when a judge denied his request to reopen the original 1991 case that cost him control of the fabled MGM film studio. Parretti, already convicted of criminal charges stemming from that case, had argued he possessed new evidence that justified reopening it. But Chancellor William Allen of the Delaware Chancery Court, where the case was originally tried, rejected Parretti’s request, saying the financier failed to show how the outcome might have been different based on his new evidence. Allen’s order was released by the court Tuesday. Parretti lost control of MGM when the bank that financed his $1.3 billion purchase in 1990 seized the studio, claiming he defaulted on loans and grossly mismanaged it. He sued to reclaim MGM, but lost the 1991 case. The bank, Credit Lyonnais of France, recently sold the studio to a group that includes Kirk Kerkorian, the Las Vegas multibillionaire who originally sold the studio to Parretti.