Berlusconi ‘extorted by provider of prostitutes’

ITALIAN police have arrested a businessman on charges of allegedly extorting money from Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Judicial sources say the arrest was aimed at ensuring the man’s co-operation in a probe into the recruitment of prostitutes to attend wild parties at Berlusconi’s home.

Giampaolo Tarantini and his wife, Angela Devenuto, were arrested in Rome yesterday morning, and a third suspect is being sought, police in Naples said. Berlusconi is not under investigation in this case.

Tarantini has admitted he paid a high-end prostitute, Patrizia D’Addario, and other women to attend parties at Berlusconi’s residences, but insists Berlusconi did not know about the arrangement. Tarantini is currently under investigation in Bari for aiding and abetting prostitution.

Naples prosecutor Francesco Greco said Berlusconi had paid the Tarantini family’s legal and housing costs.

Greco alleged that the payment was aimed at ensuring that Tarantini enters a plea bargain rather than letting the Bari prostitution investigation go to trial. Such a move would limit the publication of potentially embarrassing telephone transcripts concerning the women who went to Berlusconi’s parties.

Greco did not specify the amount paid, but the Panorama news magazine, which broke the news of the investigation, said that Tarantini received €500,000 and subsequent monthly payments from Berlusconi.

The alleged middleman of the arrangement, Valter Lavitola, is still being sought. Greco said Lavitola facilitated the payments by Berlusconi and had conspired with Tarantini to make sure they kept coming.

Berlusconi is not under investigation and is considered the victim in the case, a Naples policewoman said. Berlusconi has said he did not feel victimised by Tarantini and says he was helping a needy family.

“I helped someone and a family with children who found themselves and continue to find themselves in very serious financial difficulty,” Berlusconi was quoted as saying by Panorama, which is owned his Fininvest media empire.

“I didn’t do anything illegal, I limited myself to helping a desperate man without asking for anything in exchange. That’s how I’m made and nothing will change that.”

Berlusconi is on trial in Milan for allegedly paying a 17-year-old for sex at some of his parties. Both deny the allegation. He is known for handing out generous envelopes of cash and other gifts to women and his friends.

Paying for sex with a prostitute is not a crime in Italy, unless the woman is under 18. Profiting from prostitution is a crime. Tarantini has admitted he recruited D’Addario and others and paid their travel expenses to come to parties at Berlusconi’s residences so he could win favour with Berlusconi in hopes of improving his unrelated business dealings.

He insisted Berlusconi had not paid the women, and did not know that Tarantini had.

D’Addario says she slept with Berlusconi at his Rome residence and tape-recorded the encounter — recordings that were later leaked to an Italian news magazine.

Berlusconi has said he has never paid anyone for sex but has made no apologies for his lifestyle. His penchant for young women prompted his second wife, Veronica Lario, to begin divorce proceedings in 2009.