It is currently estimated that at least $10 BILLION (EU 8 billion) of Parmalat funds have simply disappeared and cannot be accounted for. The way this came about is a complex web of high risk derivatives based on worthless bonds which, in turn, were founded through offshore shell companies. IF this derivatives scandal is ever fully exposed, the collapse of U.S. and European banks, and the U.S. and European economies, will be eminent. After derivative based scandals like Enron and WorldCom, this just may be the pin that bursts the financial balloon.
Starting in 1997, Parmalat entered into numerous North and South American company acquisitions. The purchase of these companies created large bank debts for Parmalat primarily through Bank of America, Citicorp, and JP Morgan Chase. By 2001, these Parmalat buy-outs were already drowning in red ink. Initially, the banks hedged these losses with high risk interest swap derivatives.
It is no coincidence that the 3 U.S. banks directly involved with the Parmalat scandal are those who hold the highest amount of derivatives:
1 - JPMORGAN CHASE BANK - $33 Trillion, 700 Billion
2 - BANK OF AMERICA - $13 Trillion, 800 Billion
3 - CITIGROUP - $11 Trillion
The result was more red ink due to risky speculation on interest and exchange rates, so the banks created a Ponzi scheme with derivatives they brokered to other banks and investors, such as U.S. pension funds; all based on worthless Parmalat bonds. In reality, they created a financial scam as a means to offset their Parmalat debts and losses. But the scheme got out of hand when greed apparently took over. Now, those same banks are attempting to lay the entire blame on Parmalat. However, it appears that Parmalat was a victim of these bank schemes along with hundreds of thousands of investors.
Part of this bank scheme was to rate the derivative-based Parmalat bonds as "sound financial paper." Bank of America was a partner in most of Parmalat's acquisitions, and Citicorp purportedly created the fraudulent accounting system through mail drop shell companies formed in offshore jurisdictions.
One of these shell companies was Bonlat, re-organized in the Cayman Islands after having been closed down by the Netherlands Antilles government. Bonlat invested $6.9 Billion in high risk interest swap derivatives founded on the falsely high-rated bonds created by the banks for Parmalat. Another shell company, Buconero LLC, was a subsidiary of Citibank. The Italian name Buconero means Black Hole. How ironic it is that Citibank chose this name.
"The Parmalat fraud has been mainly implemented in New York, with the active role of the Zini legal firm and of Citibank," said San Diego lawyer Darren Robbins. "We believe that Citigroup, by creating instruments like the sadly famous 'Buconero,' has played a fundamental role in helping Parmalat to fake their balance sheets and hide their real financial situation."
The entire operation was a well organized fraud from its inception. Through Zini, North and South American firms that had been acquired by Parmalat were sold. Later, Parmalat re-purchased those same companies. The money for the re-purchases came from the shell company derivatives based on the worthless Parmalat bonds. The sole purpose of the offshore shell companies, such as the Citibank subsidiary, was to create liquidity on the Parmalat books. Because of that falsely created paper liquidity, the banks could keep brokering derivatives based on even more worthless bonds they were rating as sound financial investments.
Former Parmalat CEO Tanzi stated to Italian prosecutors that "[the fraudulent bond system] was fully the banks idea." Parmalat's former financial manager, Fausto Tonna, altered Parmalat's books to provide a false security for the bonds. According to the former CEO, "It was the banks which proposed it [altering the company books] to Tonna."
In June 2003, the Parmalat board had a new director, Luca Sala, who came from Bank of America. In order to apparently cover up the fraudulent bond-based derivatives they had brokered, on December 19, Bank of America announced that a Parmalat account allegedly worth $3.9 billion did not exist, which brought the Parmalat insolvency to the public. How coincidental that in early December, the new financial manager at Parmalat was Alberto Ferraris from Citibank.
It appears to be far more than evident that the spirit of the great Italian fraudster, Carlo Ponzi, is alive and well in the U.S. banking system.
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