Milan (Dow Jones) -- A judge in Parma charged the founder of Parmalat and two powerful Italian bankers on Wednesday with playing key roles in the collapse of the dairy giant, which resulted in the largest corporate bankruptcy ever in Europe.

The judge, Domenico Truppa, indicted Cesare Geronzi, the chairman of the powerful investment bank Mediobanca, with fraudulent bankruptcy. Matteo Arpe, the former chief executive of the Rome-based bank Capitalia, who is considered one of the rising stars of the Italian financial world, was also charged with failing to act to stop the fraud that led to the spectacular implosion of Parmalat in 2003.