£5.4bn Parmalat funds 'in US bank'

ABOUT e7.7bn (£5.4bn) belonging to fraud-hit dairy products giant Parmalat has been found, lawyers acting for creditors claimed today.

In an extraordinary twist to the scandal which has seen a e10bn black hole open up at the Italian group, documents making the claim were lodged with the bankruptcy court in the northern Italian city of Parma, home to the company.

The legal filing from lawyers acting for the Parmalat Creditors Committee says they have 'succeeded in following the electronic trail of about e7.7bn [which was] well invested and guaranteed'.

The revelations came after fevered speculation in the Italian media.

Earlier today TGfin, an Italian website controlled by the business interests of the country's Premier, Silvio Berlusconi, reported that creditors' committee sources had said they had found funds in a single Bank of America account deposited by a company linked to Parmalat founder Calisto Tanzi. The report said the funds were denominated in US Treasury bonds.

The creditors committee's lawyers said they had traced the funds using a group of investigators, helped by comment in the Press. The company, in the hands of the administrator, said it had 'no knowledge' of the deposits.

Separately, giant Swiss bank UBS said it bought e420m of Parmalat bonds last summer. A spokesman said these had not been sold to investors.