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Giorgio Cosulich / Getty Images file
Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, shown here in April 2011, was sentenced Friday to four years in prison.
Updated at 11:40 a.m. ET: MILAN -- An Italian court on Friday convicted former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of tax evasion and sentenced him to four years in prison.
But the verdict did not mean that Berlusconi will go to prison anytime soon.
In Italy, cases must pass two levels of appeal before the verdicts are final. Berlusconi is expected to appeal. He will not have to serve any time in jail until his final appeal is heard.
Still, the conviction Friday was significant because it was the media mogul's first prison sentence in years of criminal probes.
The verdict was almost certainly the final nail in the 76-year-old’s political coffin, two days after he announced he would not run for premier in upcoming elections.
Berlusconi was not in the courtroom for the verdict.
Berlusconi, along with other defendants convicted in the case, must deposit a total of €10 million ($13 million) into a court-ordered fund appeals, which could take years, proceed.
Berlusconi stepped down as prime minister last November after Italy came under mounting market pressure to deal with its high debt load and Berlusconi failed to come up with persuasive financial reforms.
Scheme involved rights to U.S. movies
Prosecutors alleged that the defendants were behind a scheme to purchase the rights to broadcast U.S. movies on Berlusconi's private TV networks in his Mediaset empire through a series of offshore companies and had falsely declared the payments to avoid taxes.
A total of 11 people were on trial.
Three were acquitted, including a close associate of Berlusconi, Fedele Confalonieri, chairman of Mediaset. Berlusconi and three others were convicted, including a Hollywood producer, Frank Agrama, who received a three-year sentence.
Four defendants were cleared because statute of limitations had run out.
Not the first Italian PM to be convicted
Berlusconi is not the first former Italian premier to be convicted of criminal charges.
From April: 'Burlesconi' sex scandal comes full circle
Former Socialist Premier Bettino Craxi eluded an arrest warrant and turned up at his villa in Tunisia in 1994 after a court in Italy charged him in a massive corruption case. He was tried in absentia, convicted and sentenced to 8 1/2 years in prison, never returned to Italy and died in exile. Craxi was considered Berlusconi's mentor thanks to his opening to private television in Italy from a state monopoly.
Former seven-time Christian Democrat premier, Giulio Andreotti, was convicted of involvement in a Mafia-murder. But he was cleared on appeal and never went to jail.
Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com
In the same courthouse on Friday, another criminal trial against Berlusconi was held. He is charged in that case with paying for sex with an under-age teenager and trying to cover it up. He denies wrongdoing.
Berlusconi has been tried numerous times for his business dealings. He has always denied wrongdoing and alleged that the cases were politically motivated. In each case to date, he has been cleared or seen the statute of limitations expire.
NBC's Claudio Lavanga, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
Hell--if the Italians can do it, why can't we?
No More "Bonga Bonga" parties for you old man!
yeah, let's indict Bush and his cronies for his faked WMD war.
Bush who?
Here's another conservative, shouts for lower taxes while cheating on them and then racking up the debt and bails when the situation becomes dire. He'll be back in 4 years asking for another chance because the successor didn't clean up the mess fast enough!
Election Day: Oh yes there will be "bonga bonga" parties, but of a different kind.
"An American court on Friday convicted former governor Mitt Romney of tax evasion and sentenced him to four years in prison."
Nah, never gonna happen...
The guy's already 76; with multiple appeals, etc., he's not likely to serve any time at all.
My guess is that they will drag out the appeals process to the point where he will end up dieing before ever seeing the inside of a prison cell. The Italian justice system is not exactly known for it's speed. Either that, or the verdict will quietly be overturned on appeal many years from now when the media is no longer looking. I just do not see him ever ending up serving a day in prison.
Nice. The Italians show they can hold THEIR leaders up to some standard of ACCOUNTABILITY and PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
Why can't the United States do it?
George Dumbya Bush should get a life sentence for his fake WMD-based Iraq War and the whole gamut of lies he fed our nation. Let alone the TRILLIONS of dollars he cost our nation and citizens when his crappy policies tanked our economy, and horribly damaged the Housing and Banking markets...
There is no doubt that he committed multiple felonies while he was in office. A life sentence -- or even better -- one year for every American Soldier who died in Iraq. I'd settle for either scenario.
The only way Italians will ever see justice is if Berlusconi has 'pissed-off' the wrong people in (say) Naples or Palermo. With his pecker cut off and sewn into his mouth 'bonga-bonga' will not be an option.
What a rediculous justice system that gives the criminal Berlusconi only 4 years, while the scientists who failed to predict something that is unpredictable get 6 years.
Well, this is nothing. George Bush got off after attacking Iraq for no reason and Bush started torture in our prisons.
PROSECUTE US WAR CRIMINALS INCLUDING ENLISTED CRIMINALS WHO COMMIT TORTURE !!!!!
Separate judicial system and light sentencing for the elite!
That thud you just heard was Mitts Romney fainting and taking a header off the floor.
Hey Magic, do you have any evidence of WMD's besides anecdotal evidence? Our Intelligence Agencies including our military forces did not find one shred of evidence of WMD's ever existing. This evidence I just cited is not anecdotal but factual.
I am growing tired of war mongers trying to justify the illegal invasion of a sovereign country when Bush II announced his intention of invading Iraq it was stated on public television his true intention was to pay back Saddam for trying to kill his father. Of course when Bush II spoke the next time it was WMD's even when our CIA and independent investigators declared there were not WMD's. Now we have created a safe haven for terrorists since Saddam has been hung or murdered. At least when Saddam was alive there were no terrorists in Iraq. All we did was destroy law and order in Iraq and provided so much chaos that the terrorists have walked right in and taken up residency. Bush II and Cheney made all this possible through self serving reasons and to test Cheney's white paper on "First Strike" initiative. So both should be tried for crimes against humanity and for war crimes. Of course this will never happen but there is solid evidence that would support a trial and probable conviction. And we cannot forget both lied to the American public about the need to invade Iraq. How naive is the American public? Are they really sheep along party lines? Who's party I think you know. The John Wayne and Evangelical Party.
If what I have just written does not ring true then why did Bush II and Cheney go after Valerie Plame and her husband? You cannot simply explain that one away. So do some real research instead of providing anecdotal BS with your posts.
#1.15
Holocaust pales in comparison with the magnitude of Chinese and Russians sufferings in WWII.
This is a topic on Italian Berlusconi, not about holocaust.
Don't cheer yet. With the Italian appeals process he'll spin this out for ten to fifteen years and never see the inside of a prison.
Now, that-za ONE spicy MEAT Ball-AH!
He will never see prison. Prison is for people like us, the serfs and commoners, not them.
Nice to know someone's legal system is working. Hopefully appeals will be quick and righteous.
Really? "Nice to know someone's legal system is working"? You did realize that they're talking about Italy, right?
Wonder if this guy is related to Musoleni. Has that look.
You mean Mussolini, right?
Same old Italian politics: they're on one side, he's on the other. They tried him for Corporate's black money. Every Corporate needs black money. Also my Corporate has black money, otherwise how could we pay the Russian Bratva (mafia) to make our trucks reach their destination? Do not pay and the first time they steal the truck and leave the trucker tied as a salami on the curb. The second time you do not pay, you don't find anymore not the truck, nor the trucker. And we should write "100,000 €uro to the Russian Bratva", on our balace sheets? Then, black money. Stop kidding and be serious. And the other claims of prostiution are just ridicolous. Do not believe this? Come here, and have a pizza!
There's a documentary about this dude I saw called Videocracy, check it out.
So he is likely to get off on this one too and the Italian wonder why the German's don't want to bail them out.
Italians don't wonder why the Germans don't want to bail them out. They wonder (and laugh their rear ends off) about how the great America allowed the mayor of its capital to get re-elected after he was caught smoking crack in a motel with a prostitute. Berlusconi is an amateur by comparison.
Mitt Romney has done the same thing for years using the Cayman Islands as his evasion route.Maybe we should follow Itialy onthis one and indict Mitt.
Another revelation about the nature of the State. The State cannibalizes its own over tax evasion, but looks the other way its agents commit violence and theft against ordinary citizens.
Bunga, Bunga!
Where's Ruby the Heart Stealer?
In the bathroom mixing up Silvio s new batch of "Just for Men" Hair Dye...
Looks like we're not the only country trying to get the fat cats to pay their fair share.
justice for some.
Reminds me of Mitt Romney
I understand Berlusconi wouldn't turn over his tax returns!
Are we sure they didn't nail him for not predicting earthquakes accurately?
I hope Bush and Cheney have some chilling thoughts about Italian justice and a "what if" moment for if they are ever caught for the war crimes court...Romney could use a taste too for his tax evasion over his vacationing Swiss dollars or is it Euros...
Justice is only for the middle class.
Less than that for those scientists, what a joke! Italy is rotten.
roland, you are one of those xenophobic right wing loonies. Italy is no more rotten than the USA, and you are the joke.
Rasputin.. It's obvious you didn't understand the "scientists" aspect of that comment. Do a bit of research.
No if only America had the same kind of honor, we would jail Dick Cheney and Karl Rove for war crimes.
Whether he goes to jail or not he was indicted and sentenced by a court, which is something we´ll never see in this country, where politicians and Presidents get away with murder, literally.
And the worst part is that one of those ¨socialist¨European countries, as the right wing lunatics keep calling them, had the ba··s to take this clown to court.
Bush and Cheney should go to Italy, the pasta is excellent.
This is nothing for Berlusconi. Now, if sentenced to this he would learn his lesson :)
Testicula will likely serve "mansion arrest" in one of his many villas with Ruby and co.
Should be a hoot.
here we'd call him a job creator
Good! I'm glad. This "man" is a complete dirt-bag.
They are going to put him in a woman's prison, right? It seems only right.