People, there can be Unity for Common Good of all where peace and harmony abounds and where all people must play by the same rules ...... People suffer from consequences of Corruption, Impunity, Graft and Oppressive Acts of Intimidation. By Evading Justice unfair extreme practices of intimidation, manipulation and discrimination takes toll order against common Law of fairness and in many cases it is fueled by self-greed. Evading or disrespecting The Constitutional Legal Rights in any way, means, form or order are practices and behaviours that are against Common Law, and are unacceptable and is illegal. If Law is Fair, all must Play by the same Rules without discrimination or favor.... Judy Miriga Diaspora Spokesperson Executive Director Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc., USA http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com Italy's Berlusconi sentenced to jail for tax fraudBy Sara Rossi | Reuters – 45 mins ago
MILAN (Reuters) - Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was sentenced to four years in jail on Friday for tax fraud in connection with the purchase of broadcasting rights by his Mediaset television company. The 76-year-old billionaire, who was convicted three times during the 1990s in the first degree before being cleared by higher courts, has the right to appeal the ruling two more times before the sentence becomes definitive. He will not be jailed unless he loses the final appeal. The ruling comes two days after Berlusconi confirmed he would not run in next year's elections as the leader of his People of Freedom (PDL) party, ending almost 19 years as the dominant politician of the center-right. Milan judge Edoardo d'Avossa told a packed court that between 2000 and 2003, there had been "a very significant amount of tax evasion" and "an incredible mechanism of fraud" in place around the buying and selling of broadcast rights. The court's written ruling said Berlusconi showed a "natural capacity for crime". Berlusconi lawyers Piero Longo and Niccolo Ghedini said the ruling was "totally divorced from all judicial logic", adding that they hoped the "atmosphere" at the appeals courts would be different. Berlusconi, one of Italy's richest men, became prime minister for a second time in 2001 after winning a landslide election victory. Even while he was prime minister, he remained in effective charge of Mediaset even though he had handed over control of day-to-day operations, the court said. The four-time prime minister and other Mediaset executives stood accused of inflating the price paid for TV rights via offshore companies controlled by Berlusconi and skimming off part of the money to create illegal slush funds. The investigation focused on television and cinema rights that Berlusconi's holding company Fininvest bought via offshore companies from Hollywood studios. The court also ordered damages provisionally set at 10 million euros ($13 million) to be paid by Berlusconi and his co-defendants to tax authorities. "POLITICAL HOMICIDE" The flamboyant Berlusconi, who is still on trial in a separate prostitution case, resigned as prime minister a year ago as Italy faced a Greek-style debt crisis, handing the reins of government to economics professor Mario Monti. Angelino Alfano, secretary of the PDL, said the ruling proved once again "judicial persecution" of the media magnate, while political rival Antonio Di Pietro, a former magistrate, hailed the decision, saying "the truth has been exposed". Should the ruling be confirmed on appeal, Berlusconi would also be forbidden from holding public office for five years, and from being a company executive for three years. "This is not a sentence, but an attempt at political homicide," Fabrizio Chicchito, the PDL's chief whip in the Chamber of Deputies, said referring to the ban from holding office. Now that Berlusconi has said he will pull out of politics, he may be focusing more on his business empire, which includes Mediaset, AC Milan soccer club, and Internet bank Mediolanum. Shares in Mediaset, Italy's biggest private broadcaster, fell as much as 3 percent after the ruling, and are down about 50 percent in the last year. The broadcaster has been struggling against rivals like News Corp's broadcaster Sky Italia and a host of online media, while its core advertising revenues are feeling the pinch of the recession. The court acquitted Mediaset chairman and long-term Berlusconi friend Fedele Confalonieri, for whom prosecutors had sought a sentence of three years and four months. Berlusconi has owned AC Milan since 1986 and they have been European champions five times under his leadership. But the club's fortunes have dipped in the past couple of seasons amid cost cutting, prompting repeated rumors of its possible sale. He also is still on trial in the separate "Rubygate" case in which he is accused of paying for sex with a teenaged nightclub dancer when she was under 18 and thus too young to be paid legally as a prostitute. He denies the charges. (Additional reporting by Danilo Masoni. Writing by Lisa Jucca and Steve Scherer; Editing by James Mackenzie and Michael Roddy) Italy court convicts Berlusconi of tax evasionBy COLLEEN BARRY | Associated Press – 1 hr 47 mins ago
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MILAN (AP) — A court in Milan Friday convicted former Premier Silvio Berlusconi of tax fraud and sentenced the media mogul to four years in prison, his first prison sentence in years of criminal probes. The 76-year-old billionaire businessman is expected to remain free until the appeals process is exhausted. In Italy, cases must pass two levels of appeal before the verdicts are final. Berlusconi received a suspended sentence in 1997 for false bookkeeping, but that conviction was reversed on appeal. Other criminal investigation probes against him on charges including corruption had ended in acquittal or were thrown out for statute of limitations. For nearly 20 years, Berlusconi has dominated the Italian political scene, but his star began to lose its glitter after a recent sex scandal that has pushed him into another trial in the same courthouse, and amid the European debt crisis that effectively forced him out of office last November. Earlier in the week, Berlusconi had announced he wouldn't run for a fourth term, leaving his center right party under pressure to find another charismatic figure before next spring's election. Berlusconi wasn't in the courtroom. In a statement, his lawyers denounced the verdict as "absolutely incredible," and said they would appeal. Berlusconi's designated political heir as the head of the center-right party he leads, Angelino Alfano, blasted the verdict as "incomprehensible" and said he is confident an appeals court would throw out the conviction. In this and other cases against him, Berlusconi has described himself as the innocent victim of prosecutors he contends sympathize with the left. Berlusconi, along with other defendants convicted in the case, must deposit a total of €10 million ($13 million) into a court-ordered fund appeals, which could take years, proceed. Prosecutors alleged that the defendants were behind a scheme to purchase the rights to broadcast U.S. movies on Berlusconi's private TV networks in his Mediaset empire through a series of offshore companies and had falsely declared the payments to avoid taxes. A total of 11 people were on trial. Three were acquitted, including a close associate of Berlusconi, Fedele Confalonieri, chairman of Mediaset. Berlusconi and three others were convicted, including a Hollywood producer, Frank Agrama, who received a three-year sentence. Four defendants were cleared because statute of limitations had run out. Berlusconi is not the first former Italian premier to be convicted of criminal charges. Former Socialist Premier Bettino Craxi eluded an arrest warrant and turned up at his villa in Tunisia in 1994 after a court in Italy charged him in a massive corruption case. He was tried in absentia, convicted and sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison, never returned to Italy and died in exile. Craxi was considered Berlusconi's mentor thanks to his opening to private television in Italy from a state monopoly. Former seven-time Christian Democrat premier , Giulio Andreotti, was convicted of involvement in a Mafia-murder. But he was cleared on appeal and never went to jail. In the other trial playing out in the Milan courthouse, Berlusconi is charged in that case with paying for sex with an underage woman and trying to cover it up. He denies wrongdoing. |
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