Breaking: Italy's Berlesconi Sentenced to 4 Years in Jail (in Mediaset TV Rights Case)

[Hissyspit]

Source: Sky News

Berlusconi Sentenced To Four Years In Jail

3:26pm UK, Friday 26 October 2012

Former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has been sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud connected to his television channels.

An Italian court delivered the verdict on Friday against the former Italian leader and 10 others in a six-year-old tax fraud trial. He's also been barred from holding political office for three years.

In Italy, cases must pass two levels of appeal before the verdicts are final. Berlusconi is expected to appeal.

The verdict comes two days after Berlusconi, 76, announced he will not run for premier in upcoming elections.

During the trial prosecutors alleged the defendants were behind a scheme to purchase the rights to broadcast U.S. movies on Berlusconi's private television networks through a series of offshore companies and had falsely declared the payments to avoid taxes.

Read more: http://news.sky.com/story/1003189/berlusconi-sentenced-to-four-years-in-jail

[JustAnotherGen]

1. He won't serve a day

[dipsydoodle]

6. Your right.

Firstly his age prohibits that under Italian law and secondl by the time the third trial occurs their statute of limitations will have kicked in.

[JustAnotherGen]

8. And you notice

He is only banned from holding office for 3 years.

[formercia]

9. Silvio has used the Statutes of Limitations clause before.

Being a Knight of Malta in Italy, means you are very well connected at all levels, including the Mafia.

[JustAnotherGen]

11. Exactly!

And he's hooked into Cosa Nostra right? Not Ndrengheta or Camorra . . . in that case he is even better protected from ever serving time for his crime. I bet he doesn't even pay up.

[davidpdx]

15. That just down right sucks he should do the time.

If that is the case he should be placed under house arrest at the very least for the four years.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Maybe he'll meet those scientists

who are in prison for failing to predict the severity of an earthquake. What do you say to someone like that, "What's shakin' Babe?"

[RussBLib]

3. So why are ex-U.S. Presidents so untouchable

Bush/Cheney both belong in a gulag.

[dipsydoodle]

4. link here

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been sentenced to 4 years in jail by a Milan court over the Mediaset TV rights case, according to Reuters.

The case revolved around a plan to purchase the rights to broadcast U.S. movies on Berlusconi's private television networks.

Offshore companies were used to avoid paying taxes on the films. The price of the films was then inflated as they were sold internally. The difference pocketed by the defendants amounted to 250 million euros.

Berlusconi has also been banned from politics for 5 years. The case against him and 10 others had begun in 2006, but had been suspended while he was Prime Minister as he had immunity.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/berlusconi-sentenced-to-4-years-in-jail-2012-10#ixzz2APnE9Sdh



http://www.businessinsider.com/berlusconi-sentenced-to-4-years-in-jail-2012-10

[Ichingcarpenter]

7. He also has the underage girl trials

Berlusconi also is on trial in Milan on charges of paying for sex with an under-age teenager and trying to cover it up.

[CanonRay]

5. One facist down, sooooo many more to go

[Mr.Turnip]

10. Huh? I doubt he'll serve but surprised he actually got convicted for once.

[grahamhgreen]

12. Now we can start on our criminally rich.

[Judi Lynn]

13. Silvio Berlusconi a man with 'natural capacity for crime'

Silvio Berlusconi a man with 'natural capacity for crime'

Silvio Berlusconi was condemned as a man with a "natural capacity for crime" by a Milan court which handed him a four year prison sentence for tax fraud.

By Nick Squires, in Rome Alex Spillius
8:33PM BST 26 Oct 2012

The former Italian prime minister's sentence was almost immediately reduced to one year, under a 2006 amnesty law designed to reduce prison overcrowding, but it included a five-year ban on holding public office which could deter him from continuing his long and controversial political career.

Given Mr Berlusconi's record of beating the legal clock and winning appeals, the 76-year-old politician and media tycoon is unlikely to spend time behind bars in the near future, if at all. His indignant lawyers immediately said they would appeal.

Despite years of legal battles, the proceedings at the packed court in Milan amounted to one of the more humiliating episodes Mr Berlusconi has faced.

Judge Edoardo d'Avossa pronounced 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 broadcasting rights for Mr Berlusconi's Mediaset television company. The court's written ruling said he showed a "natural capacity for crime".

More:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/silvio-berlusconi/9637155/Silvio-Berlusconi-a-man-with-natural-capacity-for-crime.html

[MADem]

14. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

I agree with those who think getting him behind bars will be a trick...