Mgm Pathe Communications Co

Pathe Sues Bank: Pathe Communications Corp., the parent company of MGM-Pathe Communications Co., accused Credit Lyonnais of undermining its acquisition of MGM in a lender liability suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. The suit seeks more than $1 billion in damages. Pathe maintains that the French banking giant engaged in a "systematic campaign of misrepresentation, coercion and reneging on lending commitments" after funding its $1.4-billion purchase of MGM.

Businessman Faces Charges Over Failed MGM Deal: U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Hillman ordered Giancarlo Parretti extradited to France to face fraud charges linked to the Italian businessman's failed purchase of MGM studios. The magistrate ruled that the French government had established probable cause that Parretti committed fraud, theft and embezzlement. Parretti was released on $100,000 bail pending the extradition order, which his attorneys said they would appeal.

Former MGM Chairman Giancarlo Parretti, who lost control of the movie company in a bitter court fight last year, was indicted on two felony counts by a Delaware grand jury on Tuesday. The indictment charges that Parretti tampered with physical evidence and perjured himself in the course of the Delaware trial. There was no word on whether the Delaware attorney general's office, which brought the charges, would seek to extradite Parretti from Italy.

Globus Sues MGM: Yoram Globus, former president and chief operating officer of MGM-Pathe Communications Co., has sued the company for wrongful termination. Globus alleges breach of contract and interference with contractual obligations in the Los Angeles Superior Court case. Globus lost his job at MGM after its chief lender, Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland, took control of the troubled company.

MGM's Historic Name Restored: Trying to distance itself from its recent troubles, MGM-Pathe Communications Co. has changed its name to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. "Restoring the studio's historic name has particular significance at this time, since we have embarked on an aggressive campaign under new ownership to reclaim the quality and luster that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer represented for so many years," Alan Ladd Jr. and Dennis Stanfill, co-chairmen, said.

With an important bankruptcy court hearing looming, another possible purchaser of troubled Orion Pictures emerged Tuesday--MGM-Pathe Communications Co. The entry of MGM, owned by the French bank Credit Lyonnais, raises to three the number of bidders seeking to acquire or merge with Orion, producer of "The Silence of the Lambs," 1991's Oscar juggernaut. Orion filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December, despite a years-long string of Academy Awards.

Secret agent James Bond, defender of the free world, has lost a recent skirmish involving free speech, according to a notice inside the Voyager Co.'s new laser-disc releases of the first three 007 adventures, "Dr. No," "From Russia With Love" and "Goldfinger." The note claims that an attempt has been made to "censor" filmmakers and historians who discussed production techniques and Bond personalities on a secondary audio track made for the original laser-disc releases last year.

As it investigates the tangled transactions of Giancarlo Parretti's former entertainment empire, the Securities and Exchange Commission faces the formidable obstacles of geography and differing cultural values. Financial reports newly filed by MGM and the studio's parent, Pathe Communications, detail a number of transactions that could be drawing the SEC's scrutiny--from deals with other Parretti companies to complex fund transfers.

Credit Lyonnais, the French government bank that is MGM-Pathe Communications Co.'s primary lender, said Thursday that it is foreclosing on 98.5% of the movie company's stock to sever any remaining ownership claim by Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti. Parretti, ousted last year from operating control of MGM, contends in litigation he initiated in Rome last month that he continues to own the stock.

Auditors for the beleaguered MGM studio--citing net losses of $347.4 million for 1991, the company's debt load and an absence of box-office hits--questioned anew on Tuesday the firm's ability to survive. In a statement accompanying MGM-Pathe Communications Co.'s year-end financial report to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the auditors also warned of the company's exposure to ongoing lawsuits and the reluctance of its chief lender to formally commit to a long-term financing relationship.

With all the urgency of a struggle for survival, executives at the historic but ailing MGM studio are sifting through the accounts, trying to find where the money went during the freewheeling reign of Italian financier Giancarlo Parretti. And for all Parretti's well-documented excesses, MGM's new managers are astounded at what they are learning. One day it's the pricey real estate in France being sold for almost nothing--to Parretti's wife.