Mills-Berlusconi fraud trial opens in Milan

The trial of former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi and the estranged husband of Britain’s culture minister opened today on charges of false accounting, embezzlement and tax fraud in the purchase by Berlusconi’s Mediaset empire of TV rights for US movies.

Berlusconi, British lawyer David Mills and Mediaset chairman Fedele Confalonieri are among 12 people indicted in the case. All have denied wrongdoing.

Prosecutors allege that Mediaset purchased TV rights for US movies before 1999 through two “offshore” companies and falsely declared the costs to lower the tax bill. Offshore companies are those generally registered in countries with lenient tax policies.

Defendants are not required by law to attend their trials, and neither Berlusconi nor Mills attended the opening hearing at Milan’s courthouse.

Berlusconi’s lawyer Niccolo Ghedini has said he was confident the former premier would be absolved.

Mills said at the time of the indictment that he was baffled by the charges - which involve a period during which he was no longer acting for Berlusconi’s companies.

Berlusconi, who lost power in April elections, but remains Italy’s longest-serving post-war leader and richest man, has a long history of legal troubles linked to Milan-based business interests.

To date, he has either been acquitted or seen cases against him dismissed because the statute of limitations had expired. He has always maintained his innocence.

Berlusconi’s three Mediaset networks are the main private TV rivals to RAI’s three public channels.

Separately, Berlusconi is accused of ordering the payment in 1997 of at least US$600,000 (€468,300) to Mills in exchange for the lawyer’s false testimony in the Mediaset TV rights case and one other. Both men deny the allegations.

In the Mediaset case, Mills – who is recently separated from Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell – is accused of failing to tell a court that two offshore companies involved in buying US film rights were linked to Berlusconi.