Parmalat faces further scrutiny

PROSECUTORS piled pressure on Parmalat’s former finance chief on Tuesday to reveal how billions of euro vanished from the food group, as US banking giant Citigroup and accounting firms faced legal action in the widening scandal.

After 11 hours of questioning on Monday, former chief financial officer Fausto Tonna was again taken from prison to the prosecutors’ office in the northern Italian city of Parma, close to the headquarters of the now insolvent multinational.

Investigators have accused Tonna of helping devise a web of offshore companies to hold fake accounts and non-existent assets which for over a decade fooled investors and regulators.