Parretti Blasts Report by Business Week

Giancarlo Parretti, chief executive of Los Angeles movie producer Cannon Group, late Monday denounced a Business Week article about him and an associate as “irresponsible” and “riddled with false statements and damaging innuendoes.”

In a Cannon news release issued Monday, Parretti said the article made “untrue and baseless accusations of money laundering,” against him and Cannon Chairman Florio Fiorini.

The magazine in its current issue raised questions about the origins of the two men’s money and said both men have been involved in “major financial scandals in Italy and elsewhere.” The magazine also said a Sicilian who sponsored Parretti in a business about a decade ago “had links to at least one powerful crime family.”

Parretti and Fiorini, the Italian businessmen who took control of Cannon last April, have said that they are seeking to build an international entertainment complex. Besides Cannon, they have formed Pathe Entertainment and agreed to buy New World Entertainment. Both are in Los Angeles.

“Had the editors of Business Week attempted to verify the information in the article,” Parretti said, “they would have learned that the financial statements of the entities in which we are involved are audited by Peat Marwick Main & Co. and its affiliates, a major accounting firm. The suggestions of supposed ‘close ties with Sicilian crime families’ is slanderous and totally false.”

Parretti said he and Fiorini have made full disclosure of their record in all appropriate public filings.

Parretti added: “We will not tolerate the responsibility of this article nor any article which seeks to create unwarranted innuendoes.”