Berlusconi ‘was willing to pay millions for Ruby’s silence’

The Moroccan-born nightclub dancer at the centre of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s sex trial told friends he was ready to pay millions for her silence, according to newly published wiretaps.

“He’s crazy. He’s crazy for me at the moment,” Karima El Mahroug, better known by her stage name Ruby, told a friend in a conversation recorded by investigators in Oct 2010 and available in audio files on the website of La Repubblica newspaper.

The wiretaps contain no substantial new revelations about the lurid “bunga bunga” scandal which overshadowed Berlusconi’s final months in office but reinforce allegations he made frantic efforts to quell news about his relationship with Ruby.