On Thursday 2 May 2011, Calisto Tanzi was jailed on charges of market manipulation relating to the collapse of "dairy giant" Parmalat more than seven years ago. Italy's highest court upheld Tanzi's conviction. The Rome court reduced the sentence from ten years to eight years and one month in prison. Tanzi, along with former executives, was ordered to pay the company $2.9 billion and compensate defrauded investors in an amount estimated at about $44 million. (“Former head of Parmalat”, 2011). The bankruptcy of Parmalat was the largest bankruptcy in Europe and was nicknamed “the Enron of Europe”. Calisto Tanzi started from scratch. After his father's death in 1961, Tanzi abandoned his studies and earned an accounting diploma to focus on helping the family turn around their small meat and cheese shop in Collecchio, Italy. At twenty-three he opened a small pasteurization plant near the train station in Parma, Italy. The company takes its name from the city of Parma and focuses on long-life milk. Long-life milk becomes the company's distinctive product. (Arie, 2004). The company has diversified and become a global food giant, producing yogurt, ice cream, milk, water, fruit juices, pasta sauces and biscuits in thirty-one countries on six continents. In 1990 the company began listing its shares on the Milan Stock Exchange. In 2003, Parmalat was active in thirty countries, employed over 30,000 people with revenues exceeding $7 billion, and was ranked 369 of the top 500 international companies according to Forbes. They were also ranked among the top ten in the food industry. (Segato, 2006). Parmalat was the eighth largest company in Italy, with 5,000 dairy farms depending on the company for most of their bus... half the paper... What do you need to know? Retrieved from www.italiansrus.com/articles/ourpaesani/parmalat.htmEvidence of documents destroyed at the dairy giant. (2004).Journal of Information Management, 38(no2).O'Rourke, M. (2004). The Parmalat scandal highlights fraud problems. Risk Management, 51 (no 3). Parma scam. Retrieved from http://www.suerussellwrites.com/ParmaScam.pdf Parmalat founder sentenced to 18 years in prison for fraud. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11958133Parmalat in bankruptcy protection. BBC News. (2003) Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3345735.stmSegato, L. (2006). A comparative analysis of shareholder protections in Italy and the United States. NorthwesterJournal of International Law & Business.Timeline: Parmalat fraud case. (2005). Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2005/BUSINESS/09/28/parmalat.timeline/