Prosecutors accuse Parmalat's accountants of helping the now-insolvent food group falsify its books and not blowing the whistle on its finances sooner, according to a document obtained by Reuters at the weekend.
On Thursday, investigators called for 29 people and three institutions to be put on trial for their part in Parmalat's multi-billion-euro accounting scandal, accusing them of market-rigging, false auditing and regulatory obstruction.
Among the accused are Parmalat founder Calisto Tanzi and the Italian affiliates of auditors Deloitte & Touche, Grant Thornton and Bank of America.
"It emerged that, over the years, auditors helped the group falsify its books or certified balance sheets knowing they were false; in some cases...they pushed away local auditors who were honest and/or too curious," the document said.
The prosecutors' evidence, presented to a judge in Milan last week, said seven people had "formally or substantially" admitted they were guilty of the accusations.
Those who denied wrongdoing had known about various false statements by the dairy group yet "never asked for nor drew up checks nor even denounced such evident and known circumstances to (bourse regulator) Consob or justice authorities," they said.
On Thursday, Bank of America said it would defend itself against any charges. Grant Thornton's former Italian unit, now renamed Italaudit, declined to comment while Deloitte denied wrongdoing by its two auditors under investigation.
Prosecutors accused three former Bank of America employees of helping Parmalat on the financial markets despite knowing the true state of its finances and who had "secretly drawn enormous personal benefit from the group's work with BofA (a total of more than $40 million)."
As for the three institutions themselves, prosecutors said they had not kept to a law on operating structures and controls.
A judge is now working through 40 binders, including 150 interrogation transcripts, and will then decide whether to order a trial which could start as early as next month.
