Calisto Tanzi (17 November 1938 – 1 January 2022) was an Italian businessman and convicted fraudster. He founded

Parmalat Parmalat S.p.A. is a dairy and food corporation which is a subsidiary of French multinational company Lactalis. It was founded by Calisto Tanzi in 1961. Having become the leading global company in the production of long-life milk using ultra-h ...

in 1961, after dropping out of college. Parmalat collapsed in 2003 with a €14bn ($20bn; £13bn) hole in its accounts in what remains Europe's biggest bankruptcy. In 2008 Tanzi was found to have embezzled an estimated €800 million from the company, and was jailed for fraud. Although sentenced to up to 18 years in prison, Tanzi served just over two years in jail and then was placed under house arrest.

Trials and imprisonment

Parmalat fraud

In December 2008, Tanzi was convicted by a Milan court and sentenced to 10 years in prison for fraud. Tanzi appealed the sentence but the appeals court upheld it in May 2010. The Corte di Cassazione reduced it to eight years and one month, after which Tanzi was imprisoned on 5 May 2011.

Parmalat bankruptcy

On 9 December 2010, a court in Parma found Tanzi guilty of

fraudulent bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

and criminal association and sentenced him to 18 years in prison. Tanzi appealed the sentence and the appeal trial started in December 2011 in Bologna.

Parmatour bankruptcy

On 20 December 2011, Tanzi was sentenced to a further nine years and two months for the Parmatour bankruptcy.

Parma AC bankruptcy

Tanzi was fined €10,000 and given a six-month ban from football for false accounting of

Parma A.C. Parma Calcio 1913 (), commonly known as Parma, is an Italian professional football club based in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, which competes in the Serie B, the second tier of Italian football. ''Parma Football Club'' was originally founded in Decembe ...

in 2002–03 season.

Artwork seizure

In 2001, according to '' Forbes'', he was listed as a billionaire with a net worth of roughly $1.3 billion. In December 2009 the Italian authorities announced that they had seized nineteen works of art belonging to Tanzi which had been concealed at the houses of his friends. The works of art were said to be worth more than €100 million and included paintings and drawings by

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, Monet, and van Gogh. Tanzi had denied owning any hidden works of art. Parma

Prosecutor A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the Civil law (legal system), civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the ...

Gerardo Laguardia, said that officials had acted quickly to seize the pictures after discovering that they had been offered for sale. The authorities said that Stefano Strini, Tanzi's son-in-law, was being investigated for allegedly handling the artwork. On 29 October 2019, Tanzi's art collection was auctioned off in Milan. “Rediscovered Treasures: Impressionists and Modern Masterpieces from a Private Collection” included artworks by such artists as Balla, Gauguin, Cézanne, Kandinsky, Matisse, Modigliani, and van Gogh.

Honours

Tanzi was appointed

Cavaliere del Lavoro The Order of Merit for Labour ( it, Ordine al Merito del Lavoro) is an Italian order of chivalry that was founded in 1923 by King Vittorio Emanuele III. It is awarded to those "who have been singularly meritorious" in agriculture, industry and ...

in 1984 and Cavaliere di Gran Croce Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana in 1999. Both honours, however, were withdrawn on grounds of 'indignity' in the wake of the Parmalat affair — yet before the final bankruptcy conviction — by President

Giorgio Napolitano Giorgio Napolitano (; born 29 June 1925) is an Italian politician who served as president of Italy from 2006 to 2015, the first Italian president to be re-elected to the presidency. Due to his dominant position in Italian politics, some critics ...

Personal life and death

Tanzi died of pneumonia in a Parma hospital on 1 January 2022, at the age of 83.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanzi, Calisto 1938 births 2022 deaths Deaths from pneumonia in Emilia-Romagna Confidence tricksters Italian businesspeople Italian fraudsters Italian prisoners and detainees People convicted of fraud Prisoners and detainees of Italy People from the Province of Parma