Trials and allegations involving Silvio Berlusconi

The many trials involving Silvio Berlusconi are summarised below. Berlusconi has been tried in Italian courts in several cases. In all of them, but one, he was either acquitted by a court of first instance or on appeal, or when proceedings came to a halt because the statute of limitations had expired. Therefore he has a clear record up to now. Berlusconi has always been able to afford top lawyers, for example Nicolas Sarkozy was one of his french top advocates. According to his opponents, during his periods in office as prime minister he would have managed to make important legislative changes on the purpose of favouring his personal business interests. Some of his lawyers are also members of parliament.

Completed processes

False testimony on Propaganda 2

In 1990 Berlusconi was declared guilty of perjury by the appeal court of Venice for false testimony on his affiliation to the freemason lodge "Propaganda 2", commonly known as "P2"; however the court did not proceed to a punishment sentence because the crime had been extinguished by an amnesty passed in 1989.

Bribing a member of the Financial Police (corruption)

First Court: sentenced to jail (2 years and 9 months) for four bribes.
Appeal court: the statute of limitations expired for three of the charges, an Acquittal was given on the fourth with dubitative formula (not proven).

All Iberian 1 (illegally financing a political party)

First Court: sentenced to jail (2 years and 4 months) for paying 21 billion lire (about 10 million euro) to Bettino Craxi via an offshore bank account codenamed "All Iberian".
Appeal Court: the statute of limitations expired before the appeal was completed so Silvio Berlusconi was acquitted.

Medusa Cinema (false accounting)

First Court: sentenced to jail (16 months) for false accounting of 10 billion Lire (about 5 million euro) in some of Silvio Berlusconi's bank accounts.
Appeal Court: acquitted on the charge with dubitative formula (not proven) .

Lodo Mondadori (corrupting a judge)

Appeal Court: statute of limitations expired before the appeal was completed so Silvio Berlusconi was acquitted.

All Iberian 2 (false accounting)

First Court: on September 26 2005 Berlusconi was acquitted because the new law on false accounting makes false accounting illegal only if there is a specific damaged party reporting the fact to the authorities [1]. This new law was passed by Berlusconi's coalition after the beginning of the trial, and was claimed by the opposition to be an ad personam law, i.e. aimed at acquitting Berlusconi.

Fininvest media group consolidated (false accounting)

Allegation: 750 million euro of illegal (black) funds stored by Fininvest in 64 offshore companies. The statute of limitations expired due to the new laws on false accounting approved by Berlusconi's government, therefore an acquittal was given because no specific damaged party reported it to the government.

Macherio estates (embezzlement, tax fraud and false accounting)

First Court: acquitted for embezzlement and tax fraud, the statute of limitations expired before a verdict was reached on the two cases of false accounting.
Appeal Court: acquitted for embezzlement, tax fraud and the first case of false accounting; statute of limitations expired for the second, therefore the case was closed.

Lentini affair (false accounting)

Allegation: 5 million euro paid secretly to Torino football club for buying the player Gianluigi Lentini bringing him to AC Milan. First court: The statute of limitations expired for the charge,
therefore the case was closed with an acquittal on December 13, 2005.

Mediaset television and cinema rights (false accounting, embezzlement and tax fraud)

Mr Berlusconi was on trial in relation to transactions carried out by the Berlusconi family's media company Mediaset in the 1990s. Prosecutors suspected two offshore firms controlled by a Berlusconi family holding, Fininvest, bought television and cinema rights from a US firm. The companies, it was alleged, then sold the rights on at inflated prices to Mediaset, also controlled by Fininvest, to avoid Italian taxes and create a slush fund. The trial started on November 21, 2006. Berlusconi was acquitted with dubitative formula (not proven).

SME-Ariosto (corrupting a judge and false accounting)

At its outset, the trial SME-Ariosto involved both Cesare Previti and Silvio Berlusconi. Subsequently the Italian government (i.e., Berlusconi) approved a new law, the so called "Lodo Maccanico" (also known as "Lodo Schifani" after the name of a lawyer of Berlusconi which was also a member of parliament working on the law). This law gives immunity to the five highest officers of the state (premier, president of the Republic, Senate's president, Deputy Chamber's president, Constitutional Court's president). To avoid complete suspension of the trial, the Court of Milan split it into two parts, one regarding Cesare Previti, the other Silvio Berlusconi. The Cesare Previti part of the trial resulted in a guilty verdict. In the other part (regarding Silvio Berlusconi) the Italian Prime Minister's innocence had still not been proven but the case had to be stopped because of the "Lodo Schifani"'. On 16 April 2004 the Constitutional Court declared that the "Lodo Schifani" violated articles n. 3 and 34 of the Italian Constitution.[2] and the trial resumed. After 12 years of trial, Silvio Berlusconi was acquitted on April 27, 2007, because of art.530 comma 2 ("He didn't' commit the fact", i.e. full acquittal)