Milan, March 2, 2004 — As part of their continuing co-operation with the authorities investigating the Parmalat matter, two partners of Deloitte Italy, Adolfo Mamoli and Giuseppe Rovelli, today submitted detailed memoranda to the prosecutor relating to their respective roles in the audits of Parmalat.

In the materials, the partners reiterated that they complied with professional standards in force at the time throughout Deloitte Italy's tenure as primary auditor from 1999 to 2003. It is important to note that the investigation of Parmalat began only after Deloitte Italy, in its October 2003 mid-year review report, drew attention to certain irregularities in Parmalat's financial dealings.

On Friday, February 27, 2004, the prosecutor in Milan presented the two partners with a document outlining four proposed charges against them and 23 other individuals in what is referred to as a "fast-track" procedure. The two partners were requested to appear before the prosecutor today, Tuesday, March 2, 2004, to exercise their right to be interviewed in relation to those proposed charges. However, the communication from the prosecutor referred to approximately 140 types of documents and/or information on which the prosecutor could rely in these interviews. The precise nature of this information was impossible to discern from the notice, and would likely involve tens of thousands of documents generated by many parties over a multi-year period. The partners had no right or ability to identify or review those items in the four days between receipt of the notice and the specified interview date. Under the circumstances, they declined to exercise their rights under Italian law to participate in the interviews.

Instead the partners submitted detailed memoranda, in which they responded to the four assertions raised by the prosecutor February 27, 2004. The memoranda stated in particular:

• Grant Thornton, the secondary auditors, issued clean audit opinions, on which Deloitte Italy had the right to rely;
• The suggestion that the partners improperly influenced Parmalat's stock price through their actions is completely without merit;
• There is no basis for the allegation that they obstructed the work of Consob from July 2003. In fact, Giuseppe Rovelli, the auditor at this time, co-operated fully and responded to all requests for information in his possession at the time, which he had no reason to doubt was anything other than true and accurate;
• Lastly, Adolfo Mamoli and Giuseppe Rovelli categorically rejected any assertions that they were associated with false communications made by other parties now under investigation.

Deloitte Italy will defend its people vigorously to clear them of these allegations and is confident that the two partners will be vindicated once the full facts of the matter are known. Deloitte Italy believes that investors, employees and suppliers harmed by the apparent fraud in the Parmalat matter, as well as the public at large, deserve a full and complete process of fact finding and adjudication to ensure that the facts of this matter are properly exposed and that the criminally culpable are brought to justice. Given the extraordinary complexity of the matter, we do not believe that the fast-track proceedings will achieve this goal.  In addition, the truncated nature of this type of procedure — normally used for relatively simple cases — will not provide the partners sufficient opportunity to defend themselves at this stage of the proceedings. The partners have reserved the right to respond to the charges at a later date when they have had the opportunity to review the documents on which the prosecutor has based his assertions.

Deloitte Italy will pursue all legal remedies for injury to the reputation and business of our people and the firm.

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