Banker says 'Parmalat tricked me'

A former Bank of America employee under investigation for his role in the Parmalat affair has said he was "tricked" by the food group.

Luca Sala, formerly the head of the US bank's Italian corporate finance division, said both he and the bank were "defrauded".

In an interview with La Repubblica he also denied rigging financial markets to support the firm's securities.

Bank of America offices were searched by Italian authorities on Friday.

Investigation

"Every day I curse the choice those mad men made in choosing the Bank of America for their games," Luca Sala, told newspaper La Repubblica in an interview.

"But when you have a client like Parmalat, which is bringing in all that money and has industries around the world, you don't exactly ask them to show you their bank statements," he added.

The search warrant used in Friday's investigations said Bank of America had helped to support Parmalat securities, even though it was aware of the group's financial problems, the Reuters news agency reported.

But Mr Sala denied this was the case.

"What is true is they tricked me. And it is true that I and the Bank of America (BofA) were defrauded," Mr Sala told the paper.

Mr Sala left Bank of America last year to work as a consultant for Parmalat.

Scandal spreads

On Friday, the former head of Parmalat Venezuela, Giovanni Bonici, was arrested as the probe into the scandal-hit firm continued.

So far, nine people have been arrested although no-one has been charged.

Mr Bonici was set to be questioned about his time as the head of Bonlat, a Caymans Islands unit, which is suspected of siphoning funds out of Parmalat.

The crisis at Parmalat was triggered by the revelation last month that a document showing that Bonlat held 3.9bn euros in investments and cash was false.

Investigators in Italy and beyond are now are trying to piece together the background to the collapse of Parmalat, until recently one of Europe's most admired food companies.

The company's founder, Calisto Tanzi, is currently in jail, accused of having falsified the company's accounts for many years.

Estimates of Parmalat's debts have soared in recent weeks, with some as high as 13bn euros (£9bn; $16.4bn).