Fininvest and CIR strike Mondadori accord
Damages payment placed in escrow until appeals ruling
22 December, 17:19
(ANSA) - Milan, December 22 - The financial holding company of Premier Silvio Berlusconi will not have to immediately pay a whopping 750 million euros in damages to his long-time rival Carlo De Benedetti for having bribed a judge to obtain the Mondadori publishing house, thanks to an accord struck on Tuesday.
According to the terms of the accord, De Benedetti's holding company CIR will not demand payment of the damages, ordered by a court last October 3, until the sentence completes the appeals process.
In exchange, Berlusconi's Fininvest put up 806 million euros in bank guarantees in escrow for payment of the fine plus interest, based on the assumption the appeals hearings will be completed by April of 2011.
In the event there is no definitive ruling by that time, the guarantees will be extended.
The guarantees are being provided by a pool of banks headed by IntesaSanPaolo which includes Unicredit, Monte Paschi di Siena and Popolare di Sondrio.
Unicredit is Italy's biggest bank while IntesaSanPaolo is the second biggest.
The accord between Fininvest and CIR was reached out of court and filed before a judge on Tuesday.
The case dates back to 1991 when an appeals court ruled that Fininvest and not CIR had a majority interest in Italy's biggest publishing house.
Subsequent trials over the next ten years showed that the judge in the case had been bribed by Fininvest through its chief lawyer, Cesare Previti, although without Berlusconi's apparent knowledge.
The premier was acquitted of criminal charges under the statute of limitations, while both Previti and judge Vittorio Metta were convicted.
The October civil court ruling ordering the damage payment created a political tempest with Berlusconi, Fininvest and the premier's center-right political allies claiming it had been politically motivated and part of a continuing effort by parts of the judiciary to oust the premier from office.
Evidence of this, they claimed, was Judge Raimondo Mesiano's ruling that Berlusconi was ''co-responsible'' for the bribery because it was "inconceivable for a $3 million transfer to be made without the knowledge of the company's management''.
Fininvest is an unlisted group worth an estimated $12 billion which employs over 20,000 people and is totally owned by Berlusconi and his family.
In addition to Mondadori, Fininvest has major stakes in a number of companies including the commercial TV network Mediaset, the financial services group Mediolanum and the AC Milan Serie A soccer club.
photo: Mondadori headquarters outside Milan
