"[The French] want to divide MGM into three parts, for three different French companies," Giancarlo Parretti is quoted as saying in the Italian daily, Corriere della Sera. "The French people don't like me [because] when I bought Pathe-France, it came with a politically sensitive newsreel library.
Parretti was able to purchase MGM with $1.3 billion financing from the Dutch branch of Credit Lyonnais, a French bank.
"Now, at least, everyone will stop saying that I got the money to buy MGM from the Mafia," he said.