Parmalat boss rushed to hospital

Parmalat founder Calisto Tanzi, who is under arrest for his alleged role in the food giant’s near-collapse, has been rushed to hospital with heart problems.

The major Italian news agencies said Tanzi was in the cardiology unit of a Parma hospital, but did not release any details of his condition.

Efforts to call his lawyer, Fabio Belloni, were unsuccessful.

Tanzi was arrested in December in Milan and later transferred to a prison in Parma near the headquarters of the company he once ran. He was the first of about a dozen people arrested in the fraud scandal, which forced Parmalat into bankruptcy protection.

The 67-year-old has a history of heart problems. He suffered a heart attack and underwent bypass surgery years ago and needs frequent checkups.

After his arrest in Milan, he stayed in the prison’s medical ward instead of a cell, and at one point was taken to a city hospital after he felt tingling in an arm.

Tanzi’s illness came a day after two of his children and his younger brother were arrested with four other people as part of the ever-expanding investigation into Parmalat’s finances.

Stefano and Francesca Tanzi, Calisto’s children, both served on the boards of Parmalat, Parmalat subsidiaries or other family activities. They are suspected of fraudulent bankruptcy and criminal association.

They deny any wrongdoing.

The Parmalat scandal exploded on December 19 when the company acknowledged that it didn’t have €4.4bn it had claimed was in a Bank of America account. Soon after, Parmalat went into bankruptcy protection.

A fresh audit recently put the company’s debt at about €14.8bn.