Former parmalat chief jailed after losing appeal

Former Parmalat Chairman Calisto Tanzi  was arrested and jailed Former Parmalat chief executive Calisto Tanzi was arrested and jailed Thursday, a day after he lost a final appeal against a prison sentence over one of Europe's biggest fraud scandals, police said . Tanzi, 72, was arrested in his villa in Parma and taken to the prison in the northern Italian city.
Prosecutors ordered his incarceration after Italy's highest court on Wednesday reduced Tanzi's prison sentence to eight years and one month from 10 years for stock market manipulation related to the collapse of the dairy group in 2003.
Tanzi was also handed an 18-year prison sentence in December on separate fraud charges and along with other former executives was ordered to pay the company two billion euros ($2.9 billion) and compensate defrauded investors with a sum estimated at around 30 million euros.
Tanzi served nine months in prison during the investigations but had been free pending appeals.
His lawyers had requested Tanzi serve his sentence as house arrest due to his age.
The Parmalat scandal seven years ago destroyed the savings of some 135,000 people, left a gaping 14-billion-euro hole in the company's finances and ruined the image of one of Italy's leading business empires.
At the time of its collapse, Parmalat employed around 36,000 people in 30 countries and was a leading light in the Italian business world.
The company has since recovered and is now the subject of a takeover bid by its French rival Lactalis, which would create the world's biggest dairy firm.