Calisto Tanzi

• Typical Italian

• From selling Prosciutto door to

door, to being CEO of successful
company

• The Tanzi family became like

royalty to the people of Parma

• Tanzi’s personal style projected

strong moral values and ethics
• His was never a flashy, arrogant
wealth
God of the City
• Buying struggling football team

• Investing in Formula 1

• Verdi

• Cathedral

• Biggest employer in region

• “l’areo di Dio,”
 What people think about
Tanzi family after scandal
• Mayor of Parma: “It’s drama, a
tragedy in the sense that you’d
need a piece of grand theatre to
tell the story.”

• Truck driver: “No one can

believe what has happened.”

• Farm worker: “While farmers

were milking their cows, Tanzi
were milking Italians.”
 Fausto Tonna 
• From a clerk's job after
joining the company in the
early 1970s

• Considered the financial

brain behind Parmalat

• Mr Tonna served as finance

director for 16 years until he
resigned in February 2003.

• “I wish you and your families

a slow and painful death.” 
 Consequences
• Parmalat accountant commits suicide
• A chief accountant is under arrest
• Many people who believed in the Tanzi family lost their savings
Consequences
 The Creation of Offshore
Shell Companies
• Enron-like Special Purpose Entities (“SPE”s)
• Bonlat
 The Double Billing Scheme
• Issue duplicate invoices to its distributors and franchisees and
record “sales” on both.
• Parmalat then used these duplicate invoices as backing to
obtain liquidity (in the form of credit) from banks.
• According to Parmalat employee “as many as 300 employees
were aware of the company’s double-billing scheme.”
 Recycling Old Invoices in
Factoring Arrangements
• Parmalat also used old or stale invoices which had been paid
long ago to raise additional funds.

Hiding Debt
• “Account 999”