Fri January 2, 2004 08:07 AM ET

LONDON, Jan 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. unit of Grant Thornton pledged on Friday to uncover the facts of the Parmalat fraud scandal but sought to distance itself from its Italian counterpart, which is under investigation in the case.

The head of the accounting group's Italian affiliate, Grant Thornton SpA, and a senior colleague were arrested on Wednesday following magistrates' accusations the unit was involved in 'the fraudulent preparation of false reports' from Parmalat.

'Within our power, we will ensure that what happened is uncovered and that the appropriate actions, no matter how severe, are taken,' Grant Thornton LLP, the global group's U.S. unit, said in a statement.

The firm added it did not share liability for the actions of Grant Thornton SpA which audited key Parmalat subsidiary Bonlat Financing Corporation. *

A spokeswoman for Grant Thornton International (GTI), the group's international umbrella organisation, said the facility existed to evict the Italian firm from the network but that so far none of its national practices had pressed for this.

Each of the network's national firms are independent, with GTI employing only a small staff of marketing people and some partners on secondment from member firms.

On Wednesday the Italian unit suspended its chairman Lorenzo Penca and partner Maurizio Bianchi following their arrest, on advice from GTI, the spokeswoman said.

The move came days after Italian media had reported the men were under investigation and a fortnight after the discovery of the multi-billion euro accounting scandal at Parmalat.

However, the spokeswoman denied suggestions from accounting professionals that GTI should have pressed sooner for the men's suspension to protect Grant Thorton's reputation.

Grant Thornton LLP said GTI "is pursuing all avenues to obtain information regarding Grant Thornton SpA's conduct. Representatives from Grant Thornton LLP will be part of that investigative team."

* CLB: if the Italian unit doesn't share liability with the USA unit or others, this being governed by the boundaries of each corporation and subsiduary, do they also not share policy and practices? This is the concern we need to look into. I'm curious about the coprorate structure of both organizations now.