Court: Berlusconi Company Must Pay Huge Award

MILAN (AP) – Italy’s highest court has upheld a ruling that Silvio Berlusconi’s family investment company must pay a huge fine for corruption, but gave it a small discount on the multi-million euro judgment.The Court of Cassation rejected Tuesday most of Fininvest’s objections to lower courts’ rulings against it for corruption in the purchase of the Mondadori publishing house, a key step in the creation of Berlusconi’s media empire in the 1990s.

An appeals court had awarded a rival media company 564 million euros – down from an initial 750 million euros. CIR said the high court award amounts to 494 million euros ($660 million). Berlusconi is fighting efforts in the Senate to remove him from office after his tax fraud conviction, threatening the stability of Italy’s uneasy coalition government.