A Paris criminal court will try Italian businessman Giancarlo Paretti next February in absentia for his role in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) case. Paretti was put under investigation by a French judge in 1995 and is the object of an international arrest warrant. He will be tried in his absence for misuse of business assets, forgery and use of forgery in private documents, fraud and counterfeiting, the sources said.

He is accused of having used fraud in stripping assets of French subsidiaries of the famous Hollywood studio, to the detriment of Credit Lyonnais. It was thanks to support from Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland, a former subsidiary of the government-owned French bank, that Paretti succeeded in his takeover bid for MGM in 1990.