The death of Silvio Berlusconi (Milan, 1936) at the age of 86 has left in shock to Italy. The former prime minister of the country has had a life full of luxuries and million-dollar profits, but also scandals, trials and a multitude of controversies. In total, 36 trials. Quite a record for an Italian prime minister.
Controversies triggered by the large number of strings that he was able to pull during his many business activities on all the fronts that he kept open during his career. However, only in one of them did it end with a sentence that became firm on August 1, 2013.
Businessman, media magnate, president and owner of soccer clubs, and an extensive career as a politician, allowed him to make a great fortune. A path forged by force of scandals and controversies that stained his career and that turned him into a character with a dubious reputation.
[Putin y Berlusconi, “verdaderos amigos”: un audio revela las botellas y las cartas que se mandan]
Trials where he was accused of serious charges such as false accountingcorruption, false testimony, embezzlement, defamation, bribery, abuse of power, drug trafficking… A long list that did not prevent him from counterattacking, defending himself by appealing to the last available instance, always faithful to his role as fajador.
Habitual to outbursts, bravado and his troubles with the law, his efforts were always marked by the personal stamp of a figure who was capable of doing anything to get away with it and continue to make his empire immense. He even went so far as to accuse the prosecutors of being “red communists” and “politicized.”
How was the ‘Ruby case’ and child abuse?
If something has been present in the life of Silvio Berlusconi, it has been his love affairs and the controversies with his recognized and unrecognized relationships. However, some of his vices went far beyond the law as happened in the ‘Ruby case’, one of the darkest episodes of his career.
A young Moroccan, named Karima El Mahroug, who was known as ‘Ruby Heartbreaker’, was arrested at just 17 years old for a petty theft. As part of the investigation, it was discovered that the young woman had attended several parties organized by Berlusconi on many occasions, both in Milan and in Rome. Her tycoon gave her gifts from her and paid her in exchange for having intimate relations with her.
Berlusconi in a file photo.
Reuters
In the first moment, Ruby herself came to denounce Silvio for this question. However, shortly after both denied this circumstance. As part of the complaint, Karima herself said that rituals of African origin were performed at these parties, the famous ‘Bunda-Bunda’. These generally consisted of a dozen naked girls surrounded the host in a pool and played with him underwater.
The promiscuity and the risqué acts were the beginning of these orgies that lasted for days. Other attendees described these parties as sexual Olympics with strippers which included sensual dances and other aphrodisiac stunts. Faced with this escalation of accusations, ‘il Cavaliere’ tried to get rid of these scandals through the courts. He wanted to lower the age from which minors were allowed to have sex with adults without penalty.
[Silvio Berlusconi, absuelto de sobornar al pianista de sus fiestas para que no testificara en su contra]
Shortly after, his Minister of Justice, Angelino Alfanowanted to draw up a law that would establish that the four most important men in the state -president, prime minister and presidents of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate- could not be tried more than for crimes related to the exercise of their functions.
After these attempts failed, the witnesses and complainants in the case began to rectify their versions and back down. Initially, the former Italian prime minister was sentenced to seven years in prison and a lifetime disqualification from holding public office for abuse of power and incitement to prostitution of minors. However, a year later, the conviction was overturned and he was ultimately acquitted.
What did the tax fraud for the ‘Mediaset case’ consist of?
Silvio Berlusconi was quite an institution in Italy, but also in Spain, especially for his role in the media. The politician and businessman was the founder of the Mediaset Group.
He ‘Mediaset case’ started in 1992. That’s when it was discovered that the group had created a rEd of companies offshore in tax havens to evade taxes. As? The Group purchased television rights to sporting events at inflated prices to subsequently record these purchases as tax-deductible expenses.
[Berlusconi recurre a abogados estrella de la izquierda para volver a la política]
There were times when said purchases were made from fictitious companies that belonged to Mediaset itself. Therefore, it was the whiting that bit its tail, since they bought the television rights themselves.
In 2006 he was charged with corruption, tax fraud and account falsification. And we had to wait until August 1, 2013 to see the resolution of the case and the only final conviction of him: one year in jail but was not jailed due to his age and an amnesty law. Of course, he did work for the community in a nursing home for a year. He also meant the expulsion of him from the Senate and the resignation of the title of ‘Cavaliere’.
What other court battles have you faced?
There have been multiple legal battles that Silvio Berlusconi faced in his more than eight decades of existence. Charges that were the most varied. Thus, for example, he had to sit in the dock because, presumably, he had bribed his lawyer David Mills.
Specifically, he would have offered him 600,000 euros to give false testimony in two trials against him. In this way, relevant and compromising information about some of his business would not come to light.
Berlusconi had to work for a year in a center for the elderly with dementia.
At least it is curious that, when the events occurred, ‘il Cavaliere’ was Prime Minister of Italy. He was acquitted by prescription; Mills sentenced to four years in prison.
Another chapter in this saga of trials had to do with an espionage plot. Your name? ‘P3’. Or ‘Previti case’. In this spy network there was room for politicians, businessmen and members of the Italian secret services.
The name Previti was due to the fact that, according to investigations, the network had been developed by the lawyer Cesare Previti who, in the past, had worked for Berlusconi. He was accused of corruption and influence peddling for helping Berlusconi bribe a judge and obtaining a favorable ruling.
More stories? The ‘Unipol case’, where he was accused of interest peddling when selling an insurance company. Sentenced in the first instance, it was annulled by the Supreme Court. Or the ‘Lodo Mondadori case’, accused of corruption in the purchase of the publishing house of the same name. Here he was ultimately acquitted.
