Italian multinational, dairy and food corporation, Parmalat, initiated a trial five months ago against Citigroup Inc. which backfired. A New Jersey jury verdict stated that Parmalat had defrauded Citigroup and awarded the bank $364.2 million in damages.
The trial was initiated by Parmalat’s new management who claimed that Citigroup bankers had aided corrupt officials of the disgraced corporation in masking the 4 billion Euro gap in the accounts that led to the collapse of the corporation in 2003. For this they claimed $2 billion in damages.
The verdict comes at a bad time for the corporation as it pursues two other similar claims against Bank of America and Grant Thornton, the accounting firm, at a Manhattan court set to begin sometime next year. In addition to this, Parmalat shares plunged after the verdict.
Pic courtesy Goatopolis from flickr.com
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