Two weeks after Parmalat's founder was arrested and accused of fraud, Italian investigators are pressing ahead with their probe into the scandal-ridden food group's links to some of the world's biggest banks.
A third week of investigations ended on Saturday with a search of the Milan offices of Bank of America, the third biggest U.S. bank, and the questioning of one of its employees.
And next week Italian newspapers said investigating magistrates might question top executives from two of Italy's big banks -- Capitalia and Banca Intesa. Among Italian banks Capitalia has the biggest exposure to Parmalat.
There was no confirmation from prosecutors or the banks.
Meanwhile prosecutors met on Saturday with a lawyer representing Parmalat founder Calisto Tanzi in what local media said could be a prelude to a new round of questioning of the 65-year-old disgraced businessman.
In Parma, near the dairy and baked goods company's headquarters, judicial sources said investigators are also expected next week to resume interrogating Fausto Tonna, the former chief financial officer who like eight others is under arrest and accused of fraud.
Investigators on both sides of the Atlantic are trying to determine how Tanzi, by his own admission, siphoned hundreds of millions of euros out of Parmalat into family holdings and why auditors and bankers failed to blow the whistle as a hole that could top 10 billion euros opened up in the group's accounts.
The former head of Parmalat's Venezuelan operations Giovanni Bonici on Friday became the ninth person jailed in the case and Luca Sala, a former Bank of America banker who quit last year to become a Parmalat consultant, became the 25th to be put under investigation.
Next week prosecutors might also question Francesca Tanzi, Calisto Tanzi's daughter and head of family tourism and holiday villages business Parmatour, newspapers said. Calisto Tanzi has told prosecutors that some of the 500 million euros that he diverted from Parmalat ended up in Parmatour.
Parmatour was expected to start insolvency proceedings as early as Monday, a source close to the matter said on Friday.
The near collapse of Parmalat, which has almost seven billion euros in outstanding bonds, is the latest embarrassment for the country's banks, already smarting from accusations that they failed to warn clients about the risk of bonds issued by Argentina and by another insolvent Italian food company, Cirio.
The scandal has given Italy's Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti the upper hand in a long-running feud with Bank of Italy Governor Antonio Fazio, whose weighty supervisory powers Tremonti wants to scale back in favor of a single regulator.
One of many questions prosecutors want to ask Capitalia Chairman Cesare Geronzi, newspapers said, is whether he pressed Parmalat to buy milk company Eurolat from Cirio in 1999 for what was widely seen as an expensive 330 million euros.
Capitalia was among the creditors of Cirio, in liquidation after defaulting on one billion euros of bonds in 2002.
Parmalat bondholders are scheduled to meet on Monday, but a source close to matter said it looked as if the meeting would not have a quorum and could be put back.
Small investors have heaped scorn on the Tanzis, who built Parmalat from a single milk plant in 1961 to a juice, yogurt and baked goods group with some 35,000 employees worldwide and long cultivated ties with politicians and priests.
Calisto Tanzi's son Stefano on Saturday showed he remained popular at the Parma AC football club which joined the family empire in a breakneck expansion. He is due to quit as president on Wednesday and the club to be sold at the end of the season.
The Serie A club's players applauded their supporters at the end of a 1-0 victory over Inter Milan, and midfielder Simone Barone said the tribute was also directed at Stefano Tanzi.
