The Italian dairy company that collapsed in a €14 billion fraud in 2003 was Parmalat.
Founded in Parma in 1961 by Calisto Tanzi, Parmalat grew from a family business into a multinational food company famous for long-life milk packaged using ultra-high-temperature processing. It expanded aggressively into foods, beverages, and sports sponsorship, including ownership of the football club AC Parma.
The collapse began when auditors and banks discovered that billions supposedly held in an offshore account at Bank of America’s Cayman Islands branch did not exist. The account was linked to Bonlat, a Parmalat financing subsidiary, and supporting documents were forged. Investigators uncovered years of hidden debt, fabricated assets, and misleading financial statements. Parmalat filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2003.
The scandal is often compared with Enron, but Parmalat was primarily a dairy and food corporation, not a coffee, confectionery, or pasta brand. Its restructuring produced a surviving Parmalat business, later acquired by France’s Lactalis group.