Investigators probing the Parmalat scandal are looking into whether €250 million could be traced to Malta, the Italian news agency ANSA reported yesterday.

Investigators believe this amount, raised in a €500 million bond issue in Brazil in 2001, ended up in Malta having passed via a Cayman Islands unit of the Spanish bank Santander Central Hispano.

Italian prosecutors grilled two former finance directors of Parmalat and a senior auditor on Friday in an attempt to untangle an alleged multibillion-euro web of fraud at the food group.

ANSA reported that the investigators have asked Santander and banks in Malta for information in connection with the matter.

Parmalat's crisis exploded just over two weeks ago when a new management team trying to save the food group revealed a €4 billion hole in its accounts.

Calisto Tanzi, who resigned as chairman days before the revelation, said the shortfall could be as big as €8 billion.

Prosecutors believe Tanzi, helped by an inner circle of advisers, falsified Parmalat accounts for years and embezzled more than €800 million, saddling the group with debts.

A sum of money is thought to have gone into the coffers of Bonlat through Parmalat Capital Finance Ltd, a company set up in the Cayman Islands, but based in Malta.

Parmalat is one of Italy's best-known brand names and has nearly 35,000 employees in 30 countries with annual revenues of more than €7.5 billion.