Enrico Bondi said he would ask for as much as 14 billion euros ($22 billion) from Citigroup Inc.

Parmalat collapsed in December, 2003, in Italy's largest bankruptcy, later disclosing more than 14 billion euros of debt, about eight times the amount reported by its former management. Prosecutors filed charges after discovering that the company had never earned a profit after its stock market listing in 1992, though it reported earnings every year. Chief Executive Officer Enrico Bondi said he would ask for as much as 14 billion euros ($22 billion) from Citigroup Inc. after a court said his company could seek civil damages in a criminal trial against the U.S. bank in connection with the foodmaker's 2003 bankruptcy. Parmalat was admitted as a civil party in the trial in the Italian city of Parma, the company said in an e-mailed statement today. The claims would be in addition to a lawsuit filed against Citigroup for damages in the U.S. Citigroup said in an e-mailed statement that all charges against the bank were ``unfounded.'' ``Here 10 senior executives of Citigroup have been accused of having contributed to the Parmalat fraud,'' said Marco De Luca, a lawyer for Bondi, in an e-mailed statement. ``This was not a matter of a single episode which is coming to trial, but rather something that was a product of the Citigroup organization.'' Under Italian law, individuals can request civil damages during criminal proceedings. Bondi made the filing in his role as the court-appointed administrator who oversaw Parmalat's bankruptcy reorganization. Parmalat was relisted on the Milan stock exchange in October 2005. Bondi won his second mandate as CEO on April 8. ``If the defendants in a criminal trial are found guilty, the judge can award damages to those parties that have filed civil claims,'' said Stefano Putinati, a criminal lawyer based in Milan.
Parmalat lawyer De Luca said he'd requested the ``entire amount of the fraud, equivalent to 14 billion euros, precisely because of the exceptional seriousness and causal effect that these matters had on the entire Parmalat fraud.'' Bondi on April 18 was excluded from making civil claims in a Milan trial against four banks, including Citigroup, for market manipulation. Citigroup is facing trial in the U.S. May 5 on claims by Parmalat that it aided and abetted larceny by corrupt insiders at the Italian dairy company.
Bondi filed the lawsuit against Citigroup in New Jersey in July, 2004, accusing the U.S. bank of disguising debt and inflating cash flow from operations at Parmalat including raising money through a unit called Buconero, which means black hole in Italian. The cash was subsequently represented as equity on Parmalat's balance sheet. Bondi also accused Citigroup of knowing that Parmalat falsified invoices and of laundering misappropriated funds through its accounts. A New Jersey court last week threw out Bondi's claims of fraud, conspiracy, racketeering and unjust enrichment, narrowing the scope of the case and the damages sought.
``Judges both in the U.S. proceeding and the trial in Milan have radically reduced the requests advanced by Parmalat,'' Citigroup said in the statement. ``In the U.S. the damages requests have been radically reduced and in Milan Parmalat was excluded from the trial altogether.'' Investors have bought Parmalat shares on speculation they may benefit from legal settlements and have demanded the company loosen its limits on dividend payments. Bondi has collected more than 1 billion euros in settlements to date after filing charges against the dairy company's former lenders. ``The bottom line is that Citigroup is going to be taken to court and Parmalat could get several billion dollars from them,'' Alessandro Frigerio, a fund manager at RMJ Sgr in Milan, told Bloomberg Television. Frigerio does not hold Parmalat shares but is considering adding them.