Milan, Friday

RAUL GARDINI, a flamboyant industralist and yachtsman who embodied

Italian business flair, killed himself today in the second suicide this

week of a top businessman tarnished by the country's corruption scandal.

Legal sources said Gardini, 60, former chairman of the Ferruzzi

food-to-chemicals group, was to have been arrested today, but it was not

clear if he was aware of his imminent arrest when he killed himself.

Gardini, was dead on arrival at a Milan hospital after shooting

himself in the head in his apartment in the city.

''Gardini was found with a bullet in his temple. The police forensic

department say it was a suicide,'' parliamentary spokesman Paolo Barile

told MPs.

He said Gardini had left behind a business card, apparently addressed

to his family, with the single word Grazie (thanks).

Gardini was the 10th person to commit suicide after becoming

implicated in the Italian corruption scandal which broke 18 months ago

in Milan.

This afternoon, magistrates issued arrest warrants for former

Montedison chief executive officer Carlo Sama and three other figures

closely associated with the Ferruzzi group.

All four are under investigation for alleged false accounting within

the Ferruzzi group.

Gardini's death coincided with the funeral of Gabriele Cagliari, the

former head of state energy giant ENI.

Cagliari committed suicide in Milan's San Vittore prison on Tuesday,

where he had been held for four months by magistrates investigating

corruption in the chemical industry.

In recent weeks, Gardini had become increasingly touched by the

corruption scandal as magistrates turned their attention to Enimont, a

former joint venture between state energy group ENI and Ferruzzi's

Montedison operating company.

In Rome, MPs demanded a full debate on the death of the silver-haired

yachtsman who helped turn Ferruzzi from a family grains firm into an

international giant and headed Italy's 1992 bid for the Americas Cup

yachting trophy.--Reuter.