Court orders Berlusconi investment company to pay rival €560 million in corruption case

Source: Associated Press

Court orders Berlusconi investment company to pay rival €560 million in corruption case
By Associated Press, Updated: Saturday, July 9, 3:46 AM

MILAN — Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s family investment company has been ordered to immediately pay €560 ($797) million to a rival media group for alleged corruption in the acquisition of the Mondadori publishing company.

A Milan appellate court upheld a lower court’s 2009 sentence in a ruling Saturday but reduced the damages from €750 million.

Berlusconi came under fire this week when he introduced a measure into Italy’s austerity budget that would have allowed the Fininvest investment company to delay payment until the final appeal. Berlusconi hastily withdrew the measure under political pressure.

The civil damage award stems from a case in which three Berlusconi associates were convicted of corrupting a judge to overturn a ruling in favor of industrialist Carlo De Benedetti in the struggle for control of Mondadori.





Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/court-orders-berlusconi-investment-company-to-pay-rival-560-million-in-corruption-case/2011/07/09/gIQAN3u34H_story.html

9 July 2011 Last updated at 03:57 ET
Berlusconi's Fininvest ordered to pay 560m euro damages

An Italian court has ordered Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's holding company Fininvest to pay 560m euros (£500m) in damages to a rival media group, CIR, over bribery allegations.

The Milan appeals court's ruling was over Fininvest's wrestling of control of publisher Arnoldo Mondadori Editore from CIR in 1991.

The takeover was sanctioned by a judge who was later sentenced for corruption.

Fininvest had appealed an earlier order to pay 750m euros in damages to CIR.

More:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14091890

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