Judges Question Parmalat’s Finance Directors, Auditor

PARMA, Italy — Investigating judges questioned two of Parmalat’s jailed former finance directors, an outside auditor and an outside lawyer Friday as the corruption probe intensified into the dairy company’s missing billions.

Investigators are trying to trace the roots of Parmalat’s spectacular fall -- a case that has been called “Europe’s Enron” because both firms allegedly used related companies to hide losses.

In Milan, Italy, Judge Pietro Carfagna questioned Parmalat’s outside lawyer Gianpaolo Zini and Lorenzo Penca, the former president of Italian auditing firm Grant Thornton. They had been detained Wednesday on accusations of committing fraud that led to Parmalat’s bankruptcy filing and false accounting.

In Parma, where Parmalat has its headquarters, witnesses said another judge questioned former Parmalat finance directors Fausto Tonna and Luciano Del Soldato, who also were detained Wednesday.

Parmalat, Italy’s eighth-largest company and the No. 3 maker of cookies in the United States with the Archway brand, filed for bankruptcy protection from its creditors after acknowledging a multibillion-dollar hole in its balance sheet. Parmalat founder Calisto Tanzi has told prosecutors the amount could be as much as $10 billion, although prosecutors believe it could go as high as $12.5 billion.

Prosecutors say Parmalat used a crude system of forged documents and offshore companies to hide its losses.

On Friday, police in Milan removed documents from the offices of Parmalat’s current auditor, Deloitte & Touche, as part of the investigation, said Roberto Piccinini of Milan’s financial police.

Grant Thornton was Parmalat’s auditor from 1990 to 1999. Penca and partner Maurizio Bianchi have been detained in the case on suspicion they suggested the creation of Parmalat’s Bonlat subsidiary.

The U.S. member firm of Grant Thornton International said Friday that it had no liability in the Parmalat scandal that had ensnared the global accounting firm’s Italian arm. Edward E. Nusbaum, chief executive of Grant Thornton LLP, the American branch, said the worldwide Grant Thornton organization was structured in a way that member firms did not share either profit or liability.