AC Milan owner and president and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has received a four-year prison sentence for his part in a tax-fraud scandal.
The 76-year-old Berlusconi, along with 10 others, was on trial after it was alleged that the defendants were involved in a scheme to purchase American movies for his company, Mediaset, through an offshore company and had failed to declare payments properly to avoid taxes.
It was also alleged that Berlusconi had relicensed the films and pocketed the difference, making the Milan supremo some 250m euros.
Berlusconi has been involved in a number of legal procedures to do with his business ventures, but had either been cleared or the cases had been dropped due to a time constraints. This time, though, he has been found guilty and will spend the next four years behind bars. His legal team is widely expected to appeal the verdict and overturn or lessen the sentence.
Berlusconi served as Prime Minister of the country between 1994 and 1995, 2001 and 2006, and 2008 and 2011, but he recently announced that he was not going to run for a fourth spell.
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