[4] Parretti once was an owner and chairman of the 300-hotel Melia Hotel chain, and Renta Immobiliaria S.A, a Spanish real estate company.
"[10]Undaunted, Parretti bought Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1990 for $1.2 billion,[11] using money borrowed from a Dutch subsidiary of Crédit Lyonnais and contingent on future profits financing the purchase from mogul Kirk Kerkorian.
In 1991, his ownership dissolved in a flurry of lawsuits and a default to Crédit Lyonnais, and Parretti faced securities fraud charges in the United States and Europe.
[16][17][18][19] In March 1999, he was found guilty of misuse of corporate funds and fraud and he was sentenced in absentia to four years in prison and fined 1 million Ff by a Paris court.
[20] "an ex-waiter whose principal expertise was Ponzi schemes, not film"...much of the bank's money went to what were euphemistically called 'development deals' involving young women who were neither filmmakers nor developers"[21] – Peter BartParretti is the subject of the 2024 documentary The Man Who Definitely Didn’t Steal Hollywood, directed by John Dower.