- Silvio Berlusconi is an internationally renowned figure,
but not for his good reputation as an upright and respectable statesman,
rather as a notorious man who can be called one of the most corrupt politicians
of the world in all terms.
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- An unflappable and defiant politician who has accumulated
a collection of criminal charges for which he hasn't been held accountable
so far, Berlusconi is approaching the first stages of punishment for several
crimes he committed during his three terms of premiership in Italy.
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- According to Forbes magazine, he is the 74th richest
man in the world with a net worth of $9 billion. Being the third richest
man in Italy, Berlusconi owns assets in the fields of television, newspapers,
publishing, cinema, finance, banking, insurance and sports. His main business
is Mediaset which comprises three national television channels that collectively
cover a half of the national television sector. Italy's largest publishing
house, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore also belongs to him. Before entering the
world of politics, he managed several successful business projects including
Milano 2, a huge residential project of about 10,500 apartments. In 1978
he established his first media group Fininvest and earned up to ¤58.3
million through this enterprise.
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- But this prosperous and well-off man who is considered
to be the longest-serving head of G8 group has irrefutable criminal offenses
which have blackened his performance sheet incorrigibly.
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- There are evidences which indicate that Berlusconi has
had close relations with the Sicilian Mafia, known as Cosa Nostra, which
is a criminal syndicate that emerged in mid 19th century in Sicily. According
to the UK's Daily Telegraph, the allegations of Berlusconi's connection
with mafia intensified when he entered politics in the early 1990s and
became Prime Minister for the first time in 1994. In an in-depth report
which elaborately discussed Berlusconi's underground relations with mafia,
Daily Telegraph wrote: "[In 1974] Mr. Berlusconi lays the foundations
for what will become a multi-billion pound fortune by building a housing
development called Milano II on the outskirts of Milan. [There were] claims
that Sicily's "Cosa Nostra" invested heavily in the project.
The allegation was most recently repeated in a court in Sicily in February
this year when Massimo Ciancimino, the son of a Mafia don, said the mob
gave Mr Berlusconi the huge amount of capital he needed to build the complex,
by laundering dirty money through a series of front companies."
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- Daily Telegraph's report added that Berlusconi struck
a financial deal with Cosa Nostra one year before entering politics and
becoming Prime Minister. "The allegations were again aired in a maximum
security court in Turin in Dec 2009, by Gaspare Spatuzza, a mafia pentito,
or turncoat.
- He also made the incendiary claim that Mr. Berlusconi
had provided support for a spate of deadly bombings by the mafia in 1993,
in return for political support."
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- According to Daily Telegraph, in 2004, a founding member
of Berlusconi's Forza Italia party named Marcello Dell'Utri was convicted
of complicity with mafia and condemned to 9 years in prison. Although his
imprisonment was later reduced to seven years, the court of appeal verified
the assertions that Mr. Dell'Utri arranged for mafia protection for several
companies run by Silvio Berlusconi.
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- However, cooperation with mafia and terrorist groups
is a simple instance of Berlusconi's scandals. His extensive record of
false accounting, tax fraud, corruption and bribery of police officers
and judges are almost known to everyone in Italy.
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- He was summoned to court hearings several times after
the Constitutional Court of Italy ruled in October 2009 that a law which
Berlusconi had pushed through parliament after coming to power giving himself
immunity from prosecution was invalid and unacceptable.
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- According to a report published by The Sunday Times on
October 27, 2009, Berlusconi was accused of tax fraud and false accounting
over the acquisition of TV rights by Mediaset, the television company which
he owns, and should have attended a trial over the allegations which were
directed at him; however, he evaded the court hearings several times, claiming
that he was busy with "constitutional duties". As said by The
Sunday Times, Berlusconi had offered $600,000 in bribes to an English tax
layer named David Mills to give false testimony on his behalf in corruption
trials in the 1990s. Following the revelation of this unprecedented debacle,
David Mills was sentenced to 4 years and six months in prison while Berlusconi
survived imprisonment thanks to the impunity law.
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- Berlusconi has declared himself "the most persecuted
man in the world". Who knows, maybe the more correct explanations
could have been "the most prosecuted man in the world!"
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- Lo and behold, Mr. Berlusconi who is turning into a man
of scandals was scolded last week as a number of Milan prosecutors submitted
to the Italian parliament a dossier containing statements, reports and
wiretap transcripts which depicted extravagantly sordid scenes of Berlusconi's
immoral affairs with Italian girls. The Economist reported on January 20th
that the documents gathered by the Italian lawyers portrayed "orgiastic
parties staged at the home of Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi,
involving more than 20 half-naked women, and a room for what are known
to participants as "Bunga Bunga" sessions, equipped for pole-dancing,
with wardrobes full of skimpy nurses' and policewomen's uniforms."
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- As the Italian parliament has recently abolished the
law of immunity for the Prime Minister, it can be expected that Silvio
Berlusconi may stand trial and be held responsible over his countless crimes
and wrongdoings.
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- Berlusconi who is known for his reckless and unfounded
remarks about the internal affairs of other countries is now at the verge
of losing his political, social and international credibility and his recent
sex scandal shows that he lacks the proper prestige and decency to assume
the office of a Prime Minister.
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