ECONOMICS REPORT - Parmalat's Problems
ECONOMICS REPORT - Parmalat's Problems
By Mario Ritter
Broadcast: Friday, January 23, 2004
This is Bob Doughty 1 with the VOA Special English Economics Report.
In December, the Italian food company Parmalat admitted that almost five-thousand-million dollars the company said it had in a bank did not exist. The value of the company's debt investments, called bonds, fell by about seventy-five percent. Within one week, the company sought protection from its creditors 2. The company had failed and was bankrupt.
Company Chairman Calisto Tanzi was arrested in December. So far, eleven people have been arrested and at least twenty-five people are under investigation 3.
Mister Tanzi has admitted to taking at least six-hundred-million dollars from Parmalat. Investigators 4 are now looking for at least seven-thousand-million dollars that the company claimed it had.
Parmalat's creditors appointed Enrico Bondi as administrator 5 of the company while it is in bankruptcy 6. The Italian Parliament has given Mister Bondi wide powers to administer the company. The Financial Times newspaper says Mister Bondi can cancel deals made by Parmalat up to two year ago.
A lawyer for a group of Parmalat's creditors said some of the missing money may have been placed in a Bank of America office in New York City. Carlo Zauli says private investigators have linked the money at the bank to Mister Tanzi. But the Bank of America says it has investigated and found no record of so much money.
Fausto Tonna, a financial director and advisor 7 at the company has also been arrested. So has his wife. One of Parmalat's financial officials, Gianfranco Bocchi, has admitted to creating false documents. One claimed that a Parmalat company, called Bonlat Financing, had five-thousand-million dollars. The company was in the Cayman Islands.
Bonlat is similar to other companies created by Parmalat in the Netherlands. These companies exist only on paper. They do not sell anything. They serve to create the appearance of business activity.
Yet, these companies permitted Parmalat to raise huge amounts of money. Parmalat sold bonds thirty five times between nineteen-ninety-five and two-thousand-three. These sales also created a huge amount of debt.
Parmalat is based in Parma, Italy. It has more than thirty-six-thousand employees and one-hundred-thirty-nine production centers all over the world.
This VOA Special English Economics Report was written by Mario Ritter. This is Bob Doughty.
- Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
- The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。
- They agreed to repay their creditors over a period of three years. 他们同意3年内向债主还清欠款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- Creditors could obtain a writ for the arrest of their debtors. 债权人可以获得逮捕债务人的令状。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
- He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。
- This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
- The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The role of administrator absorbed much of Ben's energy.行政职务耗掉本很多精力。
- He has proved himself capable as administrator.他表现出管理才能。
- You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
- His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。