Something Went Sour at Parmalat Parmalat is a multinational Italian dairy food corporation that today represents one of the biggest fraud scandals that has marked history in Europe. What happened and why weren’t the scandalous activities detected beforehand? Parmalat’s investigation was triggered when it “defaulted on a $187 million bond payment in mid-November 2002.” This led to further revelation of the nonexistence of $4 billion worth of claimed bank deposits held by a subsidiary in the Cayman
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Background of the company Parmalat Finanziaria SpA‚ an Italian food giant started out as a family business specializing in dairy products. It was founded in 1961 by 22 year old Calisto Tanzi‚ who discontinued his studies to expand his father’s sausage and cheese shop. It began as a small pasteurization plant in Parma and further expanded into cheese‚ yoghurt‚ cookies‚ fruit juice and ready-made sauce production that are under different names in each country. They were the ones to produce the world’s
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1. How was it possible for Parmalat managers to “cook the books” and hide it for so long? Solution Parmalat was able to cook the books mainly due to the fact that Italy has a low level of accounting transparency. The story began in 1997‚ when Parmalat decided to become a "global player" and started a campaign of international acquisitions‚ especially in North and South America‚ financed through debt. Soon‚ Parmalat became the third largest cookie-maker in the United States. But such acquisitions
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Case Study：Parmalat：Europe’s Enron 1. Review the facts in the case‚ especially the charges in the complaint‚ and evaluate the auditors’ compliance with GAAS. Do you think the auditor did all they could to detect the fraud? Evaluate whether auditors exercised due care and the level of professional skepticism to be expected in an audit the size of Parmalat. After review the material‚ it is apparently the auditors did not do all they could to detect the fraud Parmalat and its management conducted
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Parmalat Finanziaria‚ S.p.A. Case Brief Summary: Case Questions: 1). Identify key factors or circumstances that complicate an independent audit of a multinational company One thing to always keep in mind is that the culture is different across the globe. Auditors of multinational companies may face cultural and communication barriers with their clients‚ which can complicate audit tasks. We also have to account for different currency across different countries and any transactions involving them
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Parmalat accounting scandal Which factors were relevant in the Parmalat scandal? Describe the causes and consequences of the scandal. Parmalat scandal is one of biggest fraud in the world‚ for years the company can eluded responsibilities with financial analysts and investors but was in December 2003 when Parmalat went bankrupt. In this summary it can appreciate the most significant events: In 1990‚ Parmalat started buying milk producers around the world‚ in order to hide a huge debt
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Case 8-2 Parmalat: Europe’s Enron 1. Review the facts in the case‚ especially the charges in the complaint‚ and evaluate the auditors’ compliance with GAAS. Do you think the auditor did all they could to detect the fraud? Evaluate whether auditors exercised due care and the level of professional skepticism to be expected in an audit the size of Parmalat. Clearly‚ auditors failed to do the due diligence‚ thereby indirectly contributing to the failure of Parmalat. Italian law requires both listed
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Financial Scandals and the Role of Private Enforcement: The Parmalat Case Law Working Paper N° 40/2005 May 2005 Guido Ferrarini University of Genoa‚ Centre for Law and Finance and ECGI Paolo Giudici Free University of Bozen and Centre for Law and Finance © Guido Ferrarini and Paolo Giudici 2005. All rights reserved. Short sections of text‚ not to exceed two paragraphs‚ may be quoted without explicit permission provided that full credit‚ including © notice‚ is given to the source. This
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“Europe’s Enron” – the saga that has engulfed Italy’s milk-processing giant Parmalat and its senior executives‚ blue-chip European and American banks‚ accountancy firms‚ politicians and 130‚000 hapless small shareholders following the discovery in 2003 of a $14bn black hole in its finances. The revelation triggered an eight year marathon of court cases in Europe and America‚ the disgrace of the Tanzi family that controlled Parmalat‚ at least one death‚ the collapse into administration of one of Europe’s
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What specific audit procedures might have uncovered the Parmalat fraud earlier? Parmalat went from recording annual sales of 7.6 billion euros in 2002 to being declared insolvent a year later. The collusion at Europe’s Enron made it possible for Parmalat to defraud its investors of billions. The auditing procedures used by Grant Thornton and Deloitte were inadequate. Many of Parmalat’s assets were overstated and its liabilities understated. The auditors did not adequately test the Special Purpose
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