Berlusconi Family Probed for Money Laundering

[UpInArms]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=5612262

MILAN (Reuters) - Piersilvio and Marina Berlusconi, the son and daughter of Italy's prime minister, are being investigated for possible money laundering, court officials said Wednesday.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is already under investigation as part of the inquiry, started in 2001, into suspected fraudulent television deals between the Berlusconi family's Mediaset broadcaster and a U.S. firm in the mid-1990s.

Milan-based prosecutors are investigating Berlusconi for suspected embezzlement, false bookkeeping and tax fraud.

The investigation focuses on the purchase by Mediaset of television rights for U.S. films in 1994 and 1995 through two offshore firms. Investigators suspect the purchase costs were inflated by about $170 million.

...more...

[Octafish]

1. Couldn't happen to a nicer fascista.

The Berlusconi clan represents the Italian branch of the BFEE.

Mussolini wasn't that bad, says Berlusconi

John Hooper in Rome
Friday September 12, 2003
The Guardian

Even some of Silvio Berlusconi's own supporters and allies were last night squirming with embarrassment at their leader's latest extraordinary gaffe.

In an interview published yesterday by the Spectator, Italy's prime minister appeared to defend the actions of his country's fascist dictator, Benito Mussolini.

"Mussolini never killed anyone," the magazine quoted him saying. "Mussolini sent people on holiday to confine them ."

Italy's fascist leader ordered the brutal 1935-36 occupation of Ethiopia, led Italy into the second world war and headed a Nazi puppet government which rounded up and dispatched Italian Jews to Hitler's concentration camps.

CONTINUED...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,12576,1040340,00.html

Like the alien Rupert Murdoch in Oz, this turd owns the lion's share of Italian media.

[peacetalksforall]

2. Money laundering is what it is all about with the cabal and co-alition and

non-co-alition partners. Yep, business, banking, government, and military coming together with the assistance of all the intelligence teams and the media. That is the way it is shaping up from everything we are observing. And if and when they come to a dead end - like the Taliban-Unocal pipeline or the power plant in India or any other money losing endeavors - they just work a deal or start a war with a little killing thrown in. Sometimes, something goes a little wrong and they decide to profit from it, a la Enron.

Which reminds me - why is Arthur Anderson still in business? And all the other accounting and investment companies who facilitate illegal manuevers?

Off shore banking and off shore tax evading corporate escapades should be against the law.

We allow these people to steal from and lie to us. We have no one to blame but us. We trusted our Seantors and Congresspeople and they no longer represent us, except for little token pork barrelled and funded goodies. They facilitate the legislation that allows the thefts. With few exceptions, if any.

It really hurts to learn what is really happening to our country.

[FlemingsGhost]

3. I'm curious. Anyone know who is the unnamed U.S. firm?

The article does not say.

Thanks.

[Octafish]

4. Does this ring any bells?

Anyone? Anyone?

Pier Silvio Berlusconi:
His Plans, Strategy

By Dom Serafini

EXCERPT...

But how did the young Berlusconi sweep through a 15 billion euro conglom that, in addition to Italy's three major TV networks, now controls 52 percent of Spain's Telecinco?

In 1992, Pier Silvio Berlusconi entered Mediaset via its ad rep, Publitalia. Subsequently, he moved on to Italia-1, Mediaset's second national TV network and, in 1995, assumed roles in all three of the group's networks: Canale 5, the flagship web; Italia-1; and Rete-4, including (by the following year) their program scheduling. Since 2000 he has been vice president of Mediaset Group and president of R.T.I., the conglom's fully owned sub-holding that comprises all TV businesses and Internet activities.

Pier Silvio Berlusconi is also a board member of Fininvest, a private group that is headed by his older sister Maria Elvira (Marina) Berlusconi. This investment group, which owns 48.6 percent of the publicly traded Mediaset -- on the Milan stock exchange since 1996 -- is 96 percent controlled by the Berlusconi family. Fininvest also owns film company Medusa, soccer club A.C. Milan, insurance group Mediolanum, 51 percent of home video chain Blockbuster (with Viacom), and 50.3 percent of Italy's largest publishing company, Mondadori, which is headed by 37-year-old Marina Berlusconi.

According to published reports, Fininvest's net revenues in 2001 were 2,432 million euro, providing a 77 million euro profit after taxes.

This is the first interview that Pier Silvio Berlusconi has given to an international publication, perhaps indicating the start of a more prominent participation on the world stage?

CONTINUED...

http://www.videoageinternational.com/2003/articles/May/berlusconis.htm

[struggle4progress]

5. kick for international crime

:kick: