The gloves come off

摘要

Until recently, the big banks that did dozens of deals with Parmalat before the Italian dairy-products group collapsed last December were quietly dismissive of Enrico Bondi. Not any more: the special administrator who is trying to rescue a viable business from a fraud-riddled mess has already proved himself a formidable operator. His case against Parmalat's banks and advisers has been steadily gathering momentum. So the banks are fighting back. Mr Bondi has been persistent in his move against the banks, which include Citigroup, Bank of America (Bof A), J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank and several others. On October 7th Bank of America became the latest bank to be sued as part of Mr Bondi's effort to reclaim $10 billion that he says was illegally siphoned out of Parmalat by its owners and bankers. BOf A responded that it would defend itself vigorously.