Giancarlo Parretti
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Giancarlo Parretti is an Italian financier.
He formerly owned the movie studio Pathé and in 1989 took over Cannon Film Group Inc. from Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. In 1990, Parretti also bought Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, using money borrowed from a Dutch subsidiary of Crédit Lyonnais and contingent on future profits financing the purchase from mogul Kirk Kerkorian.
With the financier, MGM released almost no movies (one victim being the James Bond franchise), while Parretti enjoyed a Hollywood mogul lifestyle. He fired most of the accounting staff and appointed his 21-year-old daughter to a senior financial post. He used company money for presents to several girlfriends, including a former runner-up for Miss Universe.
In 1991 his ownership dissolved in a flurry of lawsuits and a default by Crédit Lyonnais, and Parretti faced securities fraud charges in the United States and Europe. Pathé was purchased by Chargeurs in 1992.
In March 1999, he was found guilty of misuse of corporate funds and fraud and he was sentenced in absentia to four years in prison and fined 1 million francs by a Paris court.[1]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Time Magazine. John Greenwald. What Makes Giancarlo Run? April 23, 1990.
- How an Italian thug looted MGM, brought Credit Lyonnais to its knees, and made the Pope cry. DAVID MCCLINTICK.
