Court Orders Parretti to Pay Credit Lyonnais

Fugitive Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti must pay $1.5 billion to a French company for loans he defaulted on after he bought Hollywood studio MGM in 1990, a Los Angeles County Superior Court ruled. The court, upholding the terms of an extradition agreement in Los Angeles in 1995, ruled Parretti must pay the money to a French holding company for losses suffered by Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland and its parent, Credit Lyonnais. CLBN financed Parretti’s $1.3-billion 1990 acquisition of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio from billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, who later bought MGM back. The next year, Parretti defaulted on the loans, leading Credit Lyonnais to assume control of MGM. Parretti, 56, is unlikely to be able to pay off the judgment. He fled to Italy in January, days before he was scheduled to be sentenced for a perjury conviction related to the ownership of MGM.