Italian businessman Philippe Camperio is spearheading efforts to rescue troubled luxury hat maker Borsalino after it lost millions of euros in 2013, the company said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. In March the hat maker, which has helped clothe politicians, celebrities and movie stars the world over, said it was looking at ways to stay afloat after running into financial straits.

Italy’s financial police have released sobering statistics about fraud and corruption in Italy’s public sector: Of the €4.6 billion ($5 billion) worth of public contracts checked last year, they found €1.5 billion in fraud and €2.6 billion wasted, The Wall Street Journal reported on an Associated Press story. The financial police released their annual report for 2014 on Wednesday, saying they had made police reports against 3,700 people for crimes against public administration.

Rizzo Bottiglieri de Carlini Armatori SpA, a marine freight transportation services provider, moved to shield its U.S. assets by filing a bankruptcy petition in Texas after seeking protection from creditors in Italy, Bloomberg News reported. The company filed under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, which would prevent creditors from taking action against the company’s U.S.-based assets while it reorganizes under Italian law. The company listed assets and debt of more than $500 million each in court documents filed Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston.

Stricken Italian Serie A side Parma were officially declared bankrupt on Thursday, a day after their chairman Giampietro Manenti was arrested in a money-laundering probe, Reuters reported. Parma's players have not been paid all season and it took just 10 minutes for a court to declare the club, rooted to the bottom of the league after finishing sixth last season, bankrupt. They have twice been docked points this season and are more than 100 million euros ($106.65 million) in debt. The court in Parma appointed accountants Angelo Anedda and Alberto Guiotto as receivers.

Stricken Italian Serie A side Parma were officially declared bankrupt on Thursday, a day after their chairman Giampietro Manenti was arrested in a money-laundering probe, Reuters reported. Parma's players have not been paid all season and it took just 10 minutes for a court to declare the club, rooted to the bottom of the league after finishing sixth last season, bankrupt. They have twice been docked points this season and are more than 100 million euros ($106.65 million) in debt. The court in Parma appointed accountants Angelo Anedda and Alberto Guiotto as receivers.

Italy’s latest effort to address its chronic tax evasion problem is keeping Tancredi Marino very busy. The Milan-based tax lawyer is hiring extra attorneys to handle dozens of requests from Italians looking to use an imminent amnesty to bring back money stashed in Switzerland and Monaco, The Wall Street Journal reported. But Mr.

Italian unemployment unexpectedly rose to a record high that’s more than double the German rate, keeping alive concerns about the diverging growth outlook in the euro area, Bloomberg News reported. The jobless rate increased to 13.4 percent from a revised 13.3 percent in October, while separate data showed the euro-region rate at 11.5 percent. The reports contrast with data from Germany showing unemployment there fell to the lowest in more than two decades last month.

Italy's second-largest steelmaker Lucchini will ask the Italian government for permission to sell its Piombino complex to family-owned Algerian conglomerate Cevital, the company said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Lucchini was previously owned by Russia's Severstal but was declared insolvent in 2012 and placed into special administration, battered by slowing demand following the 2008-2009 financial crisis and stiff competition from Asia. The company received two offers for its core assets in Piombino, one from Cevital and the other from India's JSW Steel .

Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Europe’s oldest bank and one of its most troubled, on Wednesday reported a loss of 797 million euros, or $991 million, in the third quarter after it drastically increased the amount of money set aside to cover problem loans, the International New York Times DealBook blog reported. The loss comes as Monte dei Paschi, which is based in Italy, is struggling to make up a capital shortfall exposed by the European Central Bank as part of a bank cleanup.

Three former managers blamed for the crisis that has befallen the world’s oldest bank, and devastated the community whose economy depended on it, were sentenced on Friday to jail time and banned from public office for five years, the International New York Times reported. The executives of the bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, were accused of hiding a convoluted derivatives contract that helped it conceal its losses.