Calisto Tanzi, Parmalat Founder Convicted Over Huge 2003 Bankruptcy, Dies at 83

The jailed founder and former chief executive of the failed Italian food giant Parmalat, Calisto Tanzi, sits in his garden at his residence near Parma, northern Italy, on Sept. 27, 2004. Daniele La Monaca/Reuters

ROME-—Businessman Calisto Tanzi, who transformed a small family milk company into the multi-national food powerhouse Parmalat only to see it collapse in one of Italy’s biggest fraudulent bankruptcies, died on Saturday, aged 83.

Tanzi died of pneumonia in a hospital in Parma, the city in central Italy where he had made his fortune, his family said.