Berlusconi acquitted on soccer corruption charge

Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi was today acquitted under the statute of limitations of charges of false bookkeeping in the 1992 transfer of a footballer to the team he owns.

Berlusconi, a billionaire media magnate, was cleared by a Milan court because the statute of limitations of 4 1/2 years had run out, said lawyer Ennio Amodio.

Also cleared of the charges were the other two defendants, Adriano Galliani, president of AC Milan, and Massimo Maria Berruti, a lawyer who had been a legal adviser for Berlusconi in the case.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the prosecutors would appeal, as they can under Italian law.

It was the latest acquittal for Berlusconi, whose legal woes over the years have also included a trial for the alleged bribing of a Rome judge, a trial for allegedly bribing tax police and probes into his Fininvest company’s bookkeeping.

Berlusconi has always denied any wrongdoing, claiming he was the victim of left-leaning prosecutors who were acting for political purposes.

His previous convictions have been reversed on appeal or annulled due to the statute of limitations.

In this case, prosecutors accused the media baron of falsifying the AC Milan’s books registering the transfer of soccer star Gianluigi Lentini from Serie A club Torino.

Milan officials were accused of paying Torino what was then 10bn lire (€5.1m) under the table, depositing the money in a bank in Switzerland.