Luxembourg bankers questioned in efforts to trace Cayman Islands funds

Saturday, January 17, 2004

LUXEMBOURG (AFP): Luxembourg investigators have questioned several bankers as part of a money-laundering probe in connection with the collapse of Italian food giant Parmalat, sources said Friday.

The probe is officially focused on a company called Satalux, which according to Italian press reports is controlled by the Tanzi family and which processed money from a Cayman Islands investment fund at the origin of Parmalat's crash.

The investigators this week questioned officials at about a dozen banks and financial institutions said to have close links with the family of Parmalat founder and former chairman Calisto Tanzi, the well-informed sources said.

Luxembourg's deputy prosecutor general, Jean-Paul Frising, told AFP that bank documents had been seized.

"As things currently stand, the investigation has not been able to determine whether Luxembourg was only a staging post for the transit of diverted funds or whether the funds are still here," he added. 

Aside from Satalux, AFP has been able to identify half a dozen other holding companies in Luxembourg linked to the Tanzi family or to the Parmalat group.

One of them, The Third Millennium s.a., was placed in liquidation last July. The majority of its capital was controlled by Epicurum, the Cayman Islands investment fund which lay at the heart of a black hole in Parmalat's finances.

Another, Olex s.a., has interests in a citrus-fruit plantation in Cuba. But it has failed to file any accounts since 1999, in violation of Luxembourg's company law. 

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