Longtime Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has had repeated problems with the judiciary. There were 34 lawsuits against the media czar for bribery, forgery of balances, tax fraud, abuse of office and also for sex with minors. In 2013, he was convicted once. This led to his expulsion from parliament.
In the other cases, Berlusconi’s lawyers either threw out the conviction – there are two appeals courts in the Italian legal system – or barred the charges against him. This also applies to the last trial last February, in which the media mogul was acquitted on suspicion of witness bribery.
In court for having sex with a minor
Before that, Berlusconi was in court in the “Rubygate” trial against underage prostitutes in Milan. Berlusconi was accused of having paid sex with the underage nightclub dancer Karima El Mahrough. Italian media had baptized the Moroccan “Ruby Rubacuori” (in German: Ruby heartbreaker).
After a lengthy procedure, the media magnate was finally acquitted in 2020 of charges of promoting prostitution of minors and abuse of office. Berlusconi was later accused of bribing witnesses during the trial. He was also acquitted of this charge in February.
Former prime minister did community service in a retirement home
In 2013, Berlusconi was sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud. It was the only conviction in a career marred by numerous court troubles. As a result, he had to resign from parliament. The sentence was reduced to one year because of an amnesty. Because of his advanced age, Berlusconi did ten months of community service in a retirement home as an alternative punishment to imprisonment.
In 2013, Berlusconi was also acquitted of charges of tax offenses in the third and final instance. The suspects were Berlusconi’s son Pier and the president of his TV group Mediaset, Fedele Confalonieri, who were also acquitted. Berlusconi’s group was accused of buying film rights at high prices in order to smuggle black money into secret bank accounts.
In 2012, a five-year bribery trial against his former British lawyer, David Mills, ended in acquittal. Milan prosecutors had accused the former prime minister of paying Mills the equivalent of nearly €560,000 in 1997 for making false statements in lawsuits against his media company Mediaset. Both men denied the allegations.
acquittal due to statute of limitations
Berlusconi first became Prime Minister of Italy in 1994. That same year he was charged with bribery of the tax police. In 1996 he was sentenced to 33 months in prison, two years later he was acquitted on appeal, partly because of the statute of limitations. In October 2001, shortly after he took office for a second time as prime minister, the Supreme Court declared him innocent.
The media czar also had legal problems in his role as owner of AC Milan football club between 1986 and 2017. In 1995, he was accused of buying footballer Gianluigi Lentini for his football club AC Milan, partly with money from slush funds. In November 2002, the statute of limitations was lifted after the government majority in parliament significantly reduced penalties for accounting fraud.
In 1997, he was sentenced to 16 months in prison for accounting fraud and illegal enrichment during the acquisition of the Medusa film company by ReteItalia, a subsidiary of Berlusconi’s Holding Fininvest. The appeals court acquitted him in 2000; the Supreme Court upheld the acquittal.
Source: Krone
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