Newsgroup: it.arti.musica.classica
Titolo: financialtimes

COMPANIES AND FINANCE THE FUTURE OF FINIVEST: Many Iinvestigations,
some convictions, no punishment Fred Kapner follows the convoluted
trail of Berlusconi and the law: 
Financial Times; Apr 27, 2001
By FRED KAPNER
Silvio Berlusconi has faced numerous trials for corruption and fraud
in Italy in recent years. 
The worst moment for the media baron came in November 1994 towards the
end of his first stint as premier. As he was chairing a United Nations
conference on organised crime, he discovered he was under
investigation for bribing tax officials. 
Even now, prosecutors are pursuing allegations regarding the
centre-right leader and his Fininvest group. 
Berlusconi has been convicted three times - on the charges of bribing
tax inspectors while at Fininvest; for making illegal payments to the
Socialist party led by former premier Bettino Craxi; and for
falsifying accounts relating to the acquisition of a film company. 
On all three occasions he managed to avoid punishment by invoking
Italy's complex limitations law in the appeal court. 
Berlusconi also benefited from a general amnesty in 1990 after having
been found guilty of making false statements regarding his membership
of P2, the illegal masonic lodge which had created a secret network of
influence-peddling during the 1970s. 
Today, Berlusconi, his brother Paolo, his businesses and close
business partners remain the targets of several investigations: 
* Berlusconi is on trial in Milan with his longtime lawyer, Cesare
Previti, accused of bribing judges in Rome to win a favourable ruling
on a large business transaction. Berlusconi nominated Previti in 1994
to be his justice minister, but public uproar forced Previti to settle
for the defence post. 
* A public prosecutor in Milan is investigating the accounts of
Fininvest, Berlusconi's holding company, and the role of a group of 64
offshore companies, code-named "Fininvest B". 
In 1996 the prosecutor, Francesco Greco, asked international
accounting company KPMG to look into the operations of "Fininvest B".
KPMG's 800-page report states that the offshore companies were owned
and managed by "administrators and personnel of the Fininvest group". 
KPMG said that, through the operations of those companies, Fininvest
could control two TV companies - Spain's Telecinco and Italy's Telepiu
- "that would not otherwise have been permitted under Italian or
foreign law". 
KPMG said the Group B companies also owned stakes in quoted companies
"without complying with obligations to inform regulatory authorities".
KPMG states that the companies allowed Fininvest to alter its
consolidated balance sheet. 
Through Group B companies such as All-Iberian and numerous others,
Fininvest channelled funds to allies who took stakes in companies on
Fininvest's behalf, KPMG claims. 
Fininvest gave a lengthy public response to the KPMG study, published
in La Repubblica on April 8. It said, among other things, that the
Group B companies were not owned by Fininvest and that they performed
only "occasional, single transactions for (Fininvest)". 
* Baltasar Garzon, the Spanish judge who has launched celebrated cases
against Basque terrorists and former Chilean dictator Augusto
Pinochet, is investigating attempts by Berlusconi and Fininvest to
control Telecinco via third-party investments. Berlusconi says the
Garzon investigation is politically motivated. 
* Milan magistrates are appealing against the dismissal of a request
to prosecute Berlusconi on the allegation that he bribed a judge who
ruled in his favour during a battle to take over Mondadori, the
publishing group. 
* A Milan court is trying Berlusconi and associates for an alleged
illegal payment to the football club Torino in order to get star
forward Gianluigi Lentini transferred to AC Milan, the club owned by
Fininvest. 
* Berlusconi and several associates are being investigated by
magistrates in Florence, Palermo and Caltanissetta for possible links
with the Mafia. Such probes - like many others into alleged Mafia ties
among Italian politicians - are often based on hearsay and weak
evidence, which lead to their dismissal by a judge. 
Over the years, the Italian public has become increasingly cynical
about the allegations concerning Berlusconi and his counter-claims
that he is a victim of politically motivated investigations. 
Developments in these cases are unlikely to swing many voters. On the
other hand, the outcome of the general election is unlikely to deter
prosecutors from continuing their investigations either. 
Berlusconi's media campaign against the public prosecutors has greatly
undermined their standing in the public eye since the days of their
extensive investigations into thousands of politicians and businessmen
in the early 1990s. 
But it has not undermined the resolve of the investigators to probe
all the allegations. 

Financial Times; Apr 27, 2001
La linea rossa e' partita da Mosca durante gli anni bui del comunismo 
sovietico. Prosegue ancora oggi la nefasta azione della propaganda sovietica 
inculcata e indottrinata nelle menti malsane dei suoi adepti!

By FRED KAPNER
Se vuoi trovare le migliori soluzioni ai tuoi problemi vai al sito:
www.siamtonight.com
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disintossicarti e ad eliminare tutta la bile che hai concentrato.
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"La bonta' disprezza e odia la nequizia, la temperanza
 odia la licenza, la fortezza odia la vilta'."
 Marco Tullio Cicerone
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