Parretti Ousted as a Director of MGM-Pathe : Entertainment: The banking firm that controls the troubled company filed a suit charging the financier with illegal maneuvers to regain control.

Giancarlo Parretti’s turbulent tenure at MGM-Pathe Communications Co. ended bitterly Monday as the French banking giant that controls the company kicked him off the studio’s board, charging that Parretti illegally tried to wrest control from MGM-Pathe’s new management team.

Credit Lyonnais Bank Nederland accused Parretti and his two allies on the board--his wife, Maria Cecconi, and business associate Yoram Globus--of improper interference in the corporate governance of the troubled entertainment company in a lawsuit filed in a Delaware court.

The suit maintains that the three “engaged in a frontal assault” on the company in a hastily called board meeting on Friday that lacked a quorum. At the meeting, the three reelected Parretti MGM-Pathe’s chairman, a post from which he was ousted two months earlier.

“Nothing could more clearly demonstrate Parretti’s complete disregard and contempt of his legal and contractual obligations,” the bank charged in the strongly worded suit, which seeks injunctive relief.

The ouster of Parretti, Cecconi and Globus completes the power play that began in April when Credit Lyonnais wrested daily management control of MGM-Pathe from Parretti and turned the job over to Alan Ladd Jr. as part of a broad-based plan to restore financial stability.

Company President Charles R. Meeker and Executive Vice Presidents Kenneth Meyer and William A. Jones were named to the newly-vacated board posts by the bank. The three join company Chairman Alan Ladd Jr. and Chief Operating Officer Jay Kanter in MGM-Pathe’s directors’ suite.

The new board is trying to jump-start MGM-Pathe, which has had poor results at the box office and been burdened with significant debt since Parretti purchased the company for about $1.4 billion in a deal last November that was predominantly backed by Credit Lyonnais. MGM-Pathe, which was unable to finance the release of several completed movies until recently, has enjoyed mild success with “Thelma and Louise.” On Monday, the bank said it was willing to increase its recent $145-million cash infusion in MGM-Pathe.

Parretti, Cecconi and Globus could not be reached for comment on the bank’s move. People close to MGM-Pathe, however, said Parretti angered bank officials by repeatedly trying to exert his authority over company management after being forced aside in favor of Ladd.

“In a stream of memoranda to MGM employees, Parretti and his agents countermanded management decisions made by the executive committee and threatened to take action against members of the . . . management team who did not comply with their requests,” the suit maintains. “This harassment sought to undermine and demoralize the management team.”

The lawsuit contends that Parretti authored one memo in May saying that MGM-Pathe’s parent, Pathe Communications Corp., still controlled all hirings and firings at MGM-Pathe. Parretti is also accused of telling MGM-Pathe’s foreign subsidiaries to ignore a cost-cutting memo.

Parretti “flew into a rage” and claimed that he still controlled MGM-Pathe when a new set of directors and officers were named to certain company subsidiaries, the lawsuit contends.

The showdown apparently came Friday, when Parretti, Cecconi and Globus called a special board meeting intended to challenge the authority of Ladd’s management. “This is a conscious effort by Parretti to coerce Ladd into resigning as chairman by destroying his credibility within the company and in the industry,” the suit alleges.