How Parmalat Went Sour

Here's the skinny on Europe's enormous financial scandal
In the wake of the financial scandals at Enron, WorldCom (MCWEQ ), and Tyco International (TYC ), European chief executives smugly insisted no such fraud could ever occur in Europe. They spoke too soon. The accounting calamity at Italian dairy-foods giant Parmalat has prosecutors scrambling to find out what happened to $8.5 billion to $12 billion in vanished assets. That sum makes Parmalat one of the largest financial frauds in history. …