Parmalat Founder Denies Fraud

The founder of insolvent Italian food giant Parmalat has rejected charges of fraud. Calisto Tanzi, who was arrested on Saturday, said he had taken no more than €500 ($624) for personal expenses out of company coffers. "No money disappeared, just non-existent assets," Tanzi’s lawyer told Italian reporters. At the center of one of Europe’s biggest accounting scandals, Tanzi is accused of wiring as much as €7 billion of the firm’s money into private accounts. He is also suspected of committing market rigging and false auditing. A judge now has to decide whether to keep the 65-year-old in prison. Parmalat is Italy’s eighth largest industrial company.