John McManus
The Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority (IFSRA) is investigating the role played by Eurofood IFSC in the €10 billion fraud at Italian food group Parmalat. A spokesman for the regulator said: "We have been in contact with various parties and will continue to follow up in the appropriate way in the coming days."
Eurofood IFSC, a subsidiary of the Italian group, is based in Dublin's International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) and provided financing facilities for companies in the group. Its directors include Mr Fausto Tonna and Mr Luciano Del Soldata, who are currently under arrest in Italy. The men - both former finance directors of the group - are being questioned about the group's elaborate network of off-shore companies and billions in missing assets.
Eurofood is licensed to operate in the IFSC by the Department of Finance and can avail of tax and other incentives. The day-to-day responsibility for regulating it rests with IFSRA, which can invoke powers under the Central Bank Act to investigate licensed IFSC companies.
Eurofood has been involved in raising money for the group and also providing complex finance for its South American operations. The Italian authorities are focusing on these types of intercompany transactions as they attempt to locate up to €12 billion in missing assets.
Two partners of accounting firm Deloitte, Mr Adolf Mamoli and Mr Giuseppe Rovelli, were formally placed under investigation yesterday. The investigating magistrates also extended their net to include Mr Luca Sala, a former Bank of America official who resigned last summer to become a consultant to Parmalat.
Parmalat had claimed a subsidiary had 3.95 billion in a Bank of America account but the bank, which had been involved in several transactions for the company, said last month no such account existed, leading to the placing of Parmalat into administration.
Eurofood is administered by Bank of America's Irish subsidiary on behalf of Parmalat. The bank had a non-executive director on the Eurofood board as did solicitors McCann Fitzgerald who are the company's lawyers.
Poisoning the Water for Foreign Investors: Page 4; Editorial Comment: Main paper.
