Parmalat Targets Banks To Recoup

Italian Official Contends They're Partly Responsible For Collapse

(AP)  Parmalat's government-appointed administrator filed a suit against Bank of America in a U.S. District Court in North Carolina on Thursday, seeking damages as part of the company's efforts to recoup money from past dealings with the financial institution, the scandal-stung dairy giant said.

The statement by Parmalat Finanziaria SpA did not say how much money the company was hoping to recover, but Italian news agency ANSA, citing Parmalat legal sources, put the figure at about $10 billion.

Parmalat said the complaint was part of administrator Enrico Bondi's campaign to legally pursue damages from parties he "contends had a determining role in the collapse of Parmalat" in the fraud scandal.

Bondi has already filed suits for billions of dollars against banks Citigroup Inc., UBS, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse First Boston in an attempt to recover money from past deals, including bond seals.

The scandal broke in December after Parmalat acknowledged it didn't have almost $5 billion it claimed was in a Bank of America account.

Details of the suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, were not immediately available.

Parmalat officials in Italy provided no immediate details beyond the statement.

Bondi has maintained that financial institutions abetted the company in disguising its true financial state or received money from Parmalat at the expense of other creditors when there were clear indications its finances were worse than the company had stated.

Financial institutions which had dealings with the juice and dairy multinational have described themselves as victims of the company's accounting.