Deloitte and Grant Thornton face £5bn Parmalat lawsuit
Parmalat has opened a new front in its battle to recover funds by filing a $10bn (£5.47bn) lawsuit in the United States against its former auditors.
Link: Parmalat special report
The company is seeking damages from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and Grant Thornton International as well as their Italian and US affiliates, Reuters reported.
Deloitte was group auditor, while Grant Thornton dealt with subsidiaries including the offshore unit in the Cayman Islands that is at the centre of the scandal.
Parmalat is currently insolvent following the discovery of a €4bn (£2.66bn) accounting hole in December.
Parmalat described Grant Thornton as ‘active conspirators’ with its former management and said Deloitte ‘failed time and time again to report on the frauds that were lying not merely just below the surface but right in front of their eyes’.
The collapsed dairy giant’s administrators had already targeted its former management and bankers before filing the lawsuit on Wednesday.
Reacting to news of the action, Deloitte claimed credit for uncovering the fraud at Parmalat and announced its intention to defend itself vigorously.
Grant Thornton said the suit was ‘illegitimate’ and claimed neither its umbrella organisation nor US affiliate could be held responsible for its former Italian unit.