Background of the company Parmalat Finanziaria SpA‚ an Italian food giant started out as a family business specializing in dairy products. It was founded in 1961 by 22 year old Calisto Tanzi‚ who discontinued his studies to expand his father’s sausage and cheese shop. It began as a small pasteurization plant in Parma and further expanded into cheese‚ yoghurt‚ cookies‚ fruit juice and ready-made sauce production that are under different names in each country. They were the ones to produce the world’s
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fall of Parmalat was an important event as it highlighted the corporate governance issues in the corporate world of Italy. Parmalat was found by Calisto Tanzi‚ CEO and Chairman‚ in 1961 with a pasteurisation plant in Italy. The company was headquartered in Italy and had grown to be a multinational company into all sorts of milk products‚ beverages and bakery goods. Three decades later‚ in 1990‚ it became a publicly traded entity and was listed on the Milan stock exchange. Although Parmalat had become
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1. How was it possible for Parmalat managers to “cook the books” and hide it for so long? Solution Parmalat was able to cook the books mainly due to the fact that Italy has a low level of accounting transparency. The story began in 1997‚ when Parmalat decided to become a "global player" and started a campaign of international acquisitions‚ especially in North and South America‚ financed through debt. Soon‚ Parmalat became the third largest cookie-maker in the United States. But such acquisitions
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Financial Scandals and the Role of Private Enforcement: The Parmalat Case Law Working Paper N° 40/2005 May 2005 Guido Ferrarini University of Genoa‚ Centre for Law and Finance and ECGI Paolo Giudici Free University of Bozen and Centre for Law and Finance © Guido Ferrarini and Paolo Giudici 2005. All rights reserved. Short sections of text‚ not to exceed two paragraphs‚ may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit‚ including © notice‚ is given to the source. This
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Violations of Sarbanes-Oxley Act Parmalat is a European company‚ and it’s headquarter is in Italy. The US Security and Exchange Commission still targeted Parmalat with fraud charge after the Parmalat fraud was revealed on Dec‚ 2003 (Kapner‚ D.W.‚ 2003). The US SEC caught the chance to practice its law in a long range when Parmalat sponsored a program called American Depositary Receipts in the US to raise money since August 1996. The SEC stated that Parmalat sold their bonds to American investors
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or could have been done to stop the situation 4. If there were proper or sufficient controls‚ what went wrong? Paramalat: Summary: “In December 2003‚ Italian prosecutors launched an investigation into suspected fraud at global food group Parmalat after it revealed a gaping hole in its accounts. The company‚ known around the world for its long-life milk‚ stunned financial markets on Dec. 19 when it said a document showing 3.95 billion euros ($5.07 billion) held by a Cayman Islands subsidiary
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THE PARMALAT SCANDAL The Parmalat situation started out as a fairly standard – although sizeable –accounting fraud. Not even the best auditors could prepare for what was to come from this company. The Parmalat group‚ a world leader in the dairy food business‚ collapsed and entered bankruptcy protection in December 2003 after acknowledging massive holes in its financial statements. This happened when billions of euros seem to have gone missing from the company’s accounts. This dramatic collapse
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Case 8-2 Parmalat: Europe’s Enron 1. Review the facts in the case‚ especially the charges in the complaint‚ and evaluate the auditors’ compliance with GAAS. Do you think the auditor did all they could to detect the fraud? Evaluate whether auditors exercised due care and the level of professional skepticism to be expected in an audit the size of Parmalat. Clearly‚ auditors failed to do the due diligence‚ thereby indirectly contributing to the failure of Parmalat. Italian law requires both listed
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Parmalat accounting scandal Which factors were relevant in the Parmalat scandal? Describe the causes and consequences of the scandal. Parmalat scandal is one of biggest fraud in the world‚ for years the company can eluded responsibilities with financial analysts and investors but was in December 2003 when Parmalat went bankrupt. In this summary it can appreciate the most significant events: In 1990‚ Parmalat started buying milk producers around the world‚ in order to hide a huge debt
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“Europe’s Enron” – the saga that has engulfed Italy’s milk-processing giant Parmalat and its senior executives‚ blue-chip European and American banks‚ accountancy firms‚ politicians and 130‚000 hapless small shareholders following the discovery in 2003 of a $14bn black hole in its finances. The revelation triggered an eight year marathon of court cases in Europe and America‚ the disgrace of the Tanzi family that controlled Parmalat‚ at least one death‚ the collapse into administration of one of Europe’s
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