18 June 2006

17 - Berlusconi’s Empire

I’m continuing to publish some questions and answers from the book "Intervista su Tangentopoli" published by Laterza and edited by Giovanni Valentini.

GV: However, it’s certain that Berlusconi had an incredible number of confiscations and searches.
ADP: But it’s also true that he has a constellation of about a thousand operating companies that are effectively headed up by him. This is said by his brother Paolo whilst being interrogated in August 1994: “We are a holding made up of all the companies, but they are all making reference to our family and the one who takes the decisions in the end is Silvio.”
So it’s not the fault of the Milan judges or of the Palermo judges if every time that there’s an investigation into one of these companies, they end up investigating the person who is in fact the one in overall control. It’s not the fault of the judges that they have a thousand companies. How many Italians have a thousand companies that are headed up by a single family?

GV: There won’t be a thousand “black holes” , a thousand mysterious objects…
ADP: The whole of Berlusconi’s empire came about in a really unusual way. To get an idea about the evolution of the companies in the group, there’s a document to be read from cover to cover. This was prepared by Francesco Giuffrida, an employee of Banca d'Italia and it was presented to the prosecutors in Palermo. This was done at the request of the antimafia directorate of the area in the course of the criminal investigation n.6031/94.
So that each of us can understand the origins, it’s enough to look at the first few lines: “… 19 June 1978 'Holding Italiana 1' was created in Milan. The other companies had the same name but they each had an identifying sequence number (2, 23). The start up capital was 20 million for each one. (thus more than 40 million in cash was put into the companies at that time.) The founding partners were Minna Armando (accountant, putting in 2 million for each company) and Crocitto Nicla (housewife, putting in 18 million for each company). Ms Crocitta was named as the sole administrator when each company was set up. However it can be deduced from talking to the witnesses that the sole effective owner of the companies was Silvio Berlusconi …”
So I ask: why does an entrepreneur need to use these systems of cover right from the start? And then, why did Berlusconi make such a massive use of off-shore companies? Certainly, the law permits it. But then if you want to be a top level politician it’s obligatory that you explain to the Italians what all these companies are used for.
In fact, it’s not enough that you explain. You must also show the documentation and you can no longer behave as you did when you opposed the foreign rogatory letters that were written by the magistrates. Otherwise your credibility disappears

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Interview about Tangentopoli