Calisto Tanzi, the founder of Parmalat, has been sentenced to death at the age of 83.

Author: Philip Pullella

ROME (Reuters) – Businessman Calisto Tanzi, a small family dairy company that turned Parmalat into a multinational food powerhouse, collapsed on Saturday at the age of 83 after falling into one of Italy’s biggest fraudulent failures.

Tanzi died of pneumonia at a hospital in Parma, where he made his fortune in a city in central Italy, his family said.

Parmalat collapsed in 2003 when a 14 billion-euro hole in its balance sheet emerged, eliminating the savings of thousands of small investors in a bankruptcy that also affected the world of banking, sports, tourism and entertainment.

The company was seen to have surpassed profits and sales for many years and the collapse sparked lawsuits against dozens of banks around the world.

Tanzi held several trials along with other directors of the company and prominent Italian bankers. He was tried for market manipulation, fraudulent bankruptcy and other charges and sentenced to several years in prison.

Born in 1938 in the small town of Collecchio, at the age of 22 he took over his grandfather’s local dairy business. More than four decades later, the Parmalat group had about 130 factories around the world making milk, yogurt and other foods.

His business galaxy also included a premier football club, a tourism company and a television channel. He also sponsored ski and Formula One car racing teams.

The Parmalat crisis erupted in 2003 when the company said a 4 billion-euro bank account in a Cayman Islands unit did not exist, forcing it to seek protection from bankruptcy management and launching a criminal fraud investigation.

Despite the company’s investment rating at the time, concerns have previously been raised as to why it did not reduce the debt on its balance sheet.

Authorities later discovered that Tanzi had hidden art treasures from masters such as Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh in his friends’ homes. The art was auctioned off in 2019.

(This story corrects the spelling of the first name, Calisto no Calisto)