Italian police arrested the son and a daughter of jailed Parmalat founder Calisto Tanzi and six others on Tuesday, as magistrates focused their fraud probe on cash diverted from Parmalat coffers into Tanzi family assets.
Investigative sources said the arrests in Parma, Rome and Verona, the first detentions since late January, included Tanzi siblings Stefano and Francesca, Calisto Tanzi's younger brother Giovanni and executives with ties to the family's travel assets.
The arrests came as Parma investigative sources put the amount of cash funnelled out of the dairy-to-cakes group at about 900 million euros, including 400 million euros into travel and tourism assets, above initial estimates.
"New elements emerged in the last month and a half of the investigation," one source said.
Calisto Tanzi said early in the probe that about 500 million euros in Parmalat funds were siphoned from the publicly listed company into travel group Parmatour and other family assets.
"The siphoning off of funds into the tourism firms was done through payments with false accounts from both (Parmalat and the tourism companies)," one investigative source said, adding that the books of Cayman Islands unit Bonlat Financing Corporation were then used to hide the cash.
Tanzi's daughter Francesca, 36, served on the board of Parmatour, the family's main travel group, but has denied having a real management role.
Calisto Tanzi told magistrates over the weekend that his daughter's role in Parmatour was "marginal", although other executives have said she guided the firm.
Stefano Tanzi, 35, sat on Parmalat's board and had ties to Parmatour via its former holding company HIT. He was also a former chairman of Parmalat-owned soccer club Parma.
An investigative source said the arrest was linked to "funds diverted by the family to the tourism sector through Parmalat".
Described by one investigator as "an emotionally exhausted man", Stefano has cut once-close ties with his jailed father.
Both siblings, already under investigation in the two-month probe, have denied wrongdoing.
Other executives arrested on Tuesday include Giovanni Tanzi, 60, Calisto's younger brother and a former Parmalat board member, and Roberto Tedesco, who stood down as Parmatour chief executive officer as the crisis erupted in December.
A total of 18 people are now detained in Parma, including three being held under house arrest. Some 36 people are being investigated in Parma, judicial sources said, and according to media reports at least 50 are being investigated in Milan.
Parmalat slumped into insolvency last December and has 14.5 billion euros of debt.
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