Ciarrapico gets five years

(ANSA) - Rome, December 14 - Former centre-right Senator and financier Giuseppe Ciarrapico was sentenced to five years in prison Monday for fraudulent bankruptcy and misappropriation.
    The court found Ciarrapico guilty of using company funds "with intent to deceive" and to "obtain an unjust profit" in the collapse of Editoriale Ciociaria Oggi publishing house. The verdict came after finance police seized assets worth 2.5 million euros on grounds that they were about to be paid out to the Ciarrapico group of companies. Ciarrapico - a former Fascist sympathizer and businessman with close ties to late seven-times premier Giulio Andreotti - is not unfamiliar with the Italian courts, having been prosecuted and convicted on numerous occasions for a range of crimes including fraudulent bankruptcy and illicit party funding.