Businessman Calisto Tanzi, founder of Parmalat, died this Saturday (1st) at the age of 83, in a hospital in the city of Parma, central Italy, where he made his fortune. He suffered from pneumonia.
The businessman turned a small family-run dairy business into the multinational food powerhouse Parmalat, only to later see it languish in one of Italy’s biggest fraudulent bankruptcies.
Parmalat collapsed in 2003 when a €14 billion financial hole was discovered in its balance sheet, wiping out the savings of thousands of small investors. Bankruptcy reverberated through the banking, sports, tourism and entertainment worlds.
The dairy company has reported overpriced profits and sales for years. The collapse sparked litigation around the world against dozens of banks.
In 2003, a €4 billion bank account held by a unit of Parmalat in the Cayman Islands was discovered, which forced management to seek bankruptcy protection and sparked a criminal fraud investigation.
Despite the investment-grade rating the company boasted at the time, there were already concerns about why it hadn’t used the balance sheet money to reduce debt.
Tanzi went through a series of trials, along with other company executives and prominent Italian bankers. He was convicted of market fraud, fraudulent bankruptcy and other charges and sentenced to several years in prison.
Authorities later discovered that Tanzi had hidden art treasures from masters such as Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh in friends’ homes. The canvases were auctioned in 2019.
Born in 1938 in the small town of Collecchio, Tanzi took over his grandfather’s local milk company at the age of 22. More than four decades later, the Parmalat group had around 130 factories around the world producing milk, yogurt and other food products.
His businesses also included a first-division football club, a tour company, and a television network. It also sponsored Formula One ski and motorsport teams.
In 2011, Parmalat became a subsidiary of the French group Lactalis, which gained full control of the company in 2019. In Brazil, Lactalis also owns the brands Itambé, Poços de Caldas, Batavo, Président, among others.
Parmalat began its operations in Brazil in 1972. The brand gained greater visibility when it started sponsoring Palmeiras, in 1992, a club of which it also participated in the administration.
Parmalat achieved even greater success by launching a memorable campaign, “Mammals”, in 1996, signed by the agency DM9DDB. In the film, children aged between three and four, dressed in different animals, such as a lion, elephant, cat, dog, cow, panda and rhino, were delighted with the brand’s milk.
(With Reuters)
.
I have over 8 years of experience in the news industry. I have worked for various news websites and have also written for a few news agencies. I mostly cover healthcare news, but I am also interested in other topics such as politics, business, and entertainment. In my free time, I enjoy writing fiction and spending time with my family and friends.