Two decades later, the company had grown into a multinational corporation diversifying into milk, dairy, beverage, bakery, and other product lines in the 1980s, becoming listed on the Milan stock exchange in 1990, and expanding further in the 1990s.

The company began to expand and had listed in its portfolio amongst other things: an expansion in the space of a decade from six countries into ownership of ParmaTour (a travel group) and Odeon TV, Parma F.C., Paulista Futebol Clube and S.E.

According to an interview he later gave Time magazine, Ferraris was surprised to discover that, though now CFO, he still did not have access to some of the corporate books, which were being handled by chief accounting officer Luciano Del Soldato.

Del Soldato resigned the next month, unable to get cash from Epicurum fund, needed to pay debts and make bond payments totalling at least €150 million.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi changed bankruptcy laws by decree to allow a company to seek accelerated protection from creditors, by giving extraordinary powers to a government-appointment administrator (commissario).

[5] Calisto Tanzi was detained hours after the firm was declared officially insolvent in late December and admitted that there was a hole of €8 billion in Parmalat's accounts, but denied any cover-up.

Among the questionable accounting practices used by Parmalat were selling itself credit-linked notes, in effect placing a bet on its own creditworthiness to conjure up an asset out of thin air.

After his arrest, Tanzi reportedly admitted during questioning at Milan's San Vittore prison that he diverted funds from Parmalat into Parmatour and elsewhere.

The family football and tourism enterprises were financial disasters as well, as Tanzi attempted to rival Berlusconi by buying Odeon TV, only to sell it at a loss of about €45 million.

[6] In 2005, Vicenzi bought from Parmalat the unprofitable bakery plant of Nusco,[9] opened in 1984 for political reasons because it was the home town of Democrazia Cristiana chieftain Ciriaco De Mita.

[11] In March 2011, the French multinational Lactalis, which already owns the Galbani, Invernizzi, Locatelli and Cademartori brands in Italy and is controlled by the Besnier family, began to acquire Parmalat shares.

Lactalis prepared to delist Parmalat in 2016, with a buyout offer at €2.8 per share to acquire the remaining 12%,[13] then raised to €3[14] but eventually failed due to opposition by hedge fund Amber and others.