Riccardo Bossi, the eldest son
of Northern League founder Umberto Bossi, was given a 20-month
jail term by a Milan court on Monday after being found guilty of
aggravated embezzlement for using party funds for personal use.
It is the first sentence to handed out after a big scandal into
the allegedly fraudulent use of the party's funding exploded in
2012. Jail terms of such a short length are usually suspended in
Italy. Bossi was found guilty of embezzling some 158,000 euros
of taxpayers' money which he put to various uses between 2009
and 2011 including paying personal debts, renting cars, paying
university fees and his rent, maintaining his ex-wife,
subscribing to pay-TV, paying gas and electricity bills and the
vet for his dog. The prosecutor in the case had requested a
one-year sentence.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA