Parmalat covered up the true state of its finances for years by issuing false statements before the food group's accounting scandal blew up in December, a document drawn up by prosecutors showed.

The document, obtained by Reuters, will be sent to 35 people who are being investigated for market-rigging and impeding regulators as formal notification that they will be charged and possibly put on trial, a judicial source said.

They include Parmalat founder and former chairman Calisto Tanzi, three ex-finance directors, two outside auditors and other people being investigated for the multinational's sudden plunge into insolvency late last year.

The document says those under investigation "distributed on several occasions... false information which they used to provide reassurances over the financial solidity of Parmalat Finanziaria, which in fact was in crisis since at least 1999..."

A copy of the document has already been sent to Gian Paolo Zini, a lawyer who worked for Mr Tanzi and is one of more than a dozen people being held in prison in Parma.

Dr Zini has denied any wrongdoing. The document listed discrepancies between results announced by Parmalat and what investigators say was its true performance, including stated earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortization of €650 million in the first nine months of 2003 when EBITDA was in fact €250 million.

It also referred to false claims that Parmalat had €4.22 billion in liquidity in September 2003, three months before it nearly collapsed, and to €2.9 billion of reported bond buybacks that never took place.