A Milan appeals court in
Friday halved, from a year to six months, the jail term of
former VIP photographer and 'paparazzi king' Fabrizio Corona for
hiding 2.6 million euros.
The money was found in 2016, part of it behind a false wall
in the attic of his friend and aide Francesca Persi and another
part in safety deposit boxes in Austria.
Prosecutors had asked for a jail term of two years and nine
months.
On May 15 a surveillance judge ruled that could work again
including using social networks after serving time for
blackmailing clients.
Judge Simone Luerti said Corona can again "carry out his
working activities" and since "the advertising and media element
is an essential component" of his "special activity", he will
also be able "to use social networks" and give interviews but
"not directly relating to the the therapeutic process in
course".
Corona left prison on February 21 and returned to a
therapeutic community near Milan.
The former VIP photographer was released by the same
detention-review court that later ruled he could return to work.
He went to the community at Limbiate.
In January a Milan prosecutor asked a seized-assets board to
confiscate Corona's home but give him back 1.8 million euros.
In April, Corona got back some 1.9 million euros of
a total of 2.6 million seized from him after being found in a
ceiling and safety deposit boxes in Austria.
His flat is in Via de Cristoforis, a stone's throw from Corso
Como, the heart of the Milanese night scene.
Corona has pled for the house to be left to him so he can
sell it and raise some of the money he still owes.
In June 2017 Corona was given the one-year jail term by a
Milan court for the case concerning around 2.6 million euros in
cash found hidden in a ceiling and in safety deposit boxes in
Austria.
Corona, a controversial figure, banged his fists on the table
in celebration and shouted "justice is done" when the relatively
lenient sentence was read out.
Prosecutors had asked for a five-year term, but Corona was
acquitted of two charges - false registration of assets and
violation of asset regulations - and convicted only of
fraudulent tax evasion.
Corona's assistant, Francesca Persi, was given a three-month
term.
Corona was arrested in October 2017 while doing social work
to serve the final part of a previous jail term for the
fraudulent bankruptcy of his agency and for blackmailing VIPs
with compromising photographs.
In 2013, the photographer was sentenced to roughly five
years in prison.
The June 2017 ruling came just days after finance police
seized the Milan apartment worth approximately 2.5 million euros
investigators believe Corona bought through a dummy purchaser -
possibly his co-defendant in the trial, Persi - with financial
resources drained from his once high-flying photography agency.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
