Two former officials at the
premier's office, both with links to former premier Silvio
Berlusconi, were among 44 people named Wednesday in a probe into
alleged bribes for contracts to stage TV events in Italy.
Berlusconi's former image director, Roberto Gasparotti, and
the media magnate-turned-politician's long-time director of
photography Giovanni Mastropietro were named in the probe into
audio-visual events companies led by detained businessman David
Biancifiori, nicknamed Scarface.
The pair, and others, are suspected of taking bribes on an
8-million-euro contract for setting up events that were being
broadcast live.
The more than 40 people probed included top officials and
managers at State broadcaster RAI, companies belonging to
Berlusconi's Mediaset group, smaller independent network La7 and
media firm Infront, judicial sources said.
The probe concerns allegations labour and service
contracts were granted in exchange for money or jobs, ANSA
sources said.
Finance police conducted searches to confiscate documents
at 60 locations, the sources said.
Biancifiori was arrested in April in a separate probe into
alleged town-council kickbacks in Marino near Rome, in which
Mayor Fabio Silvagni was detained on suspicion of allegedly
granting permission for a fast-food outlet in exchange for
getting jobs.
The businessman was first accused of bribing TV companies
to get business by 'sting' reporters from a satirical TV show on
one of Berlusconi's three channels, Le Iene (Reservoir Dogs),
who tracked him down and asked a series of probing questions
that he vigorously denied.
The Iene pounced on the back of a separate graft probe in
which led to the resignation of former transport and
infrastructure minister Maurizio Lupi, who quit even though he
was not under investigation himself.
Prosecutors said Wednesday that Biancifiori "distributed
kickbacks, holidays and airline tickets and hired people" in
exchange for getting lucrative contracts for his companies,
including Di.Bi. Technology, which supplied power units, stage
sets and audio and video recording equipment for events,
including ones staged outside of Italy.
In the probe, prosecutors explained, there were two kinds
of possible charges: for the private TV company managers it was
embezzlement; and for the RAI and premier's office officials it
was corruption.
The investigation is believed to have been sparked by
insider information from a former employee of Biancifiori's who
decided to blow the whistle, first to the Iene and then to the
Rome prosecutors.
According to the Iene probe, Biancifiori had many officials
and managers on a payroll that in a single month amounted to 1.6
million euros.
Aside from the regular payments, he also allegedly made
individual payouts, according to the TV show.
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