Italian businessman and former MGM president Giancarlo Parretti has been sentenced in absentia by a Paris court to four years in prison and fined one million French francs (#152,500) on corruption charges. The court also maintained an arrest warrant issued against him on May 2nd, 1995.

Parretti was accused of plundering companies that were part of his business empire between 1989 and 1991 and fraud connected with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and finance from the Credit Lyonnais group.

Three business associates charged in the case and who were present at the trial were also sentenced. The case against Parretti arose from a complaint in October 1991 by MGM distributors in France and then by Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland, the Dutch subsidiary of the French state-owned bank Credit Lyonnais.

The emergence of problems in the Dutch subsidiary, and other signals, drew attention to mounting problems which almost bankrupted the bank and have caused it severe difficulties ever since.