Mora loan 'an act of generosity' - Berlusconi

(ANSA) - Milan, March 27 - A 2.8-million-euro loan given to bankrupt talent scout and TV impresario Lele Mora in 2010 was a one-off "act of generosity", ex-premier and media magnate Silvio Berlusconi told a Milan court Monday.
    "I had nothing more to do with it," said Berlusconi.
    The three-time premier was testifying in the bankruptcy trial of former Berlusconi TV channel news anchor Emilio Fede.
    In October Mora plea-bargained a prison sentence of one year and six months in connection with a case regarding the bankruptcy of one of his companies and the loan given to the manager by Berlusconi.
    According to prosecutors, Berlusconi in 2010 lent the money to Mora through an assistant, manager Giorgio Spinelli, but Mora did not use it to salvage his ailing company, Lm Management.
    In the ongoing trial, state prosecutors allege that part of Berlusconi's money went to Fede, longtime former head of news at Rete Quattro, the smallest of Berlusconi's three terrestrial TV channels.
    During his term as news chief, Fede was noted for the positive spin he gave to news about his boss.
    In 2014 Mora was given a six-year prison sentence for pimping on behalf of the three-time premier and media mogul, together with Fede and a dental assistant-turned-politician, Nicole Minetti, and for the bankruptcy of his Lm Management.
    After the plea-bargain deal requested by Mora's attorneys and prosecutor Eugenio Fusco and ratified by judge Donatella Banci Buonamici in October, Mora was set to serve the two prison sentences with community service.