Bank of America Corp. on Tuesday said it did not know of a 3.95 billion euro hole in Italian food company Parmalat’s accounts until Dec. 17, two days before Parmalat announced the gap.
The bank rejected as “grossly inaccurate and irresponsible” news reports that Bank of America employees withheld information about the account supposedly held by a Cayman Islands unit of Parmalat, Bonlat Financing Corp.
“No one at Bank of America knew prior to Dec. 17 of the nonexistence of the Bonlat account at Bank of America,” Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America said in a statement. “To the contrary, (Bank of America) had no information concerning the true financial condition of the Parmalat companies until December 17, 2003.”
Parmalat slid into insolvency after the gap was revealed, in what has become one of the world’s biggest fraud scandals.
