Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
Italian robbers caught in bank raid wearing Silvio Berlusconi masks
Two Sicilian bank robbers have been caught breaking into a bank in Turin wearing carnival masks representing the features of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his close business and political associate Marcello Dell'Utri.
Possibly inspired by the Hollywood movie Point Break, in which a group of surfers robbed banks wearing masks of former presidents of the United States, the men were armed with imitation handguns.
They were overpowered by Carabinieri military police as they attempted to flee a branch of Unicredit Bank with Euros 70,000 (£63,000) in a backpack after an employee who had witnessed the robbery from a lavatory raised the alarm.
Newspapers on Wednesday published photographs of the arrests taken by a man whose apartment overlooks the bank. The robbers were identified as brothers Michele and Matteo Manganaro, aged 45 and 46, from Catania. A third accomplice reportedly escaped.
The choice of masks could be mildly embarrassing for Mr Berlusconi, who has been accused over the years of bribery, false accounting and collusion with the Mafia, but has never been convicted. His friend Mr Dell'Utri however, who hails from Sicily, has convictions for false accounting, tax evasion and complicity with Cosa Nostra.
They were overpowered by Carabinieri military police as they attempted to flee a branch of Unicredit Bank with Euros 70,000 (£63,000) in a backpack after an employee who had witnessed the robbery from a lavatory raised the alarm.
Newspapers on Wednesday published photographs of the arrests taken by a man whose apartment overlooks the bank. The robbers were identified as brothers Michele and Matteo Manganaro, aged 45 and 46, from Catania. A third accomplice reportedly escaped.
The choice of masks could be mildly embarrassing for Mr Berlusconi, who has been accused over the years of bribery, false accounting and collusion with the Mafia, but has never been convicted. His friend Mr Dell'Utri however, who hails from Sicily, has convictions for false accounting, tax evasion and complicity with Cosa Nostra.
For more information:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$230.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network
By Peter Popham in Rome
Three years after bribery allegations against Tessa Jowell's estranged husband David Mills surfaced, a judge in Milan is expected to give her verdict tomorrow. At first, the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was accused of corruption, until his government passed a law giving him legal immunity.
Mr Mills, a tax lawyer who for many years was one of Mr Berlusconi's consultants on offshore tax havens, is accused of taking a bribe of $600,000 to give false testimony in one of the many trials Mr Berlusconi has faced which alleged crooked business dealings.
The charges had their origin in a letter Mr Mills sent to a British accountant in 2004 in which he said, explaining the provenance of the $600,000 payment he had received, that it came from "Mr B". "I turned some very tricky corners, to put it mildly," he wrote, "and so kept Mr B out of a great deal of trouble that I would have landed him in had I said all I knew."
The private letter found its way into the hands of prosecutors in Milan who claimed it was proof that Mr Berlusconi had corrupted Mr Mills, and the two were put on trial. But Mr Mills changed his explanation for the letter to the accountant, Bob Drennan, claiming that the letter described a hypothetical situation as a way of soliciting tax advice for an unnamed client. Despite the damage the case did to Mr Mills's reputation and his marriage: he and Ms Jowell (now minister for the Olympics) separated when it appeared that the publicity over the case could harm her position in Mr Blair's cabinet.
Mr Mills told Legal Business magazine he found the trial absorbing. "It's very exciting," he said. "It's like a thriller, all of this... There are a lot of facts, but some fiction." He then said the money came from a Neapolitan arms dealer, Diego Attanasio, who had once been his client, a claim repeated by Mr Berlusconi. Mr Attanasio denied it firmly.
Despite the long professional association between Mr Mills and Mr Berlusconi, the latter at one point even denied knowing who the well-connected British lawyer was. Neither Mr Mills nor Mr Berlusconi showed up at any of the hearings. In the final one last week, Mr Mills apologised while continuing to deny guilt. Prosecutors have asked for a sentence of four years and eight months. If convicted, Mr Mills is expected to appeal.