Seize Corona home but return 1.8 mn (2)

(ANSA) - Milan, January 23 - A Milan prosecutor on Tuesday asked a seized assets board to confiscate paparazzi king Fabrizio Corona's home but give him back 1.8 million euros. The money is part of 2.6 million seized from the former VIP photographer, who has been through a series of trials for blackmailing VIPs.
    The prosecutor said the money should be returned to Corona because he has "partially paid his taxes".
    The prosecutor did not ask fo special surveillance measures to be tightened.
    Last June Corona was given a one-year jail term by a Milan court for a 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 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 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 ruling came just days after finance police seized a 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.