Silvio Berlusconi
From Conservapedia
Silvio Berlusconi (born Milan, 29 September 1936) is an Italian businessman and conservative politician. He is the leader of the Forza Italia party which he founded in 1993, and was prime minister of Italy between 1993 and 1994 and again between 2001 and 2006. He is the current prime minister having been reelected by a substantial majority in April of 2008 after the fall of the centre-left coalition government led by Romano Prodi, which lasted a mere 20 months[1].
His wealth derives from his ownership of the media conglomerate Mediaset (formerly Fininvest), which owns several major television channels and newspapers, but he started as a housing developer. He is also the owner of the soccer team AC Milan.
He has been the subject of judicial investigations into alleged corruption, fraud and accounting irregularities by, what he and others claim is, a group of politicized liberal judges or "toghe rosse" (red robes). Acquitted in most cases, a minority of further trials have never reached sentencing - partly because the statute of limitations had expired before the case could reach its conclusion, which Berlusconi's detractors claim to be due to delaying tactics on his part[2]. Despite this, he has never been charged of any crime. Italy is one of the few European countries, where the head of government has no immunity.
He is a great friend of President Bush and he lauded the US President in the special issue of Time magazine, 100: The World's Most Influential People.
In may 2009, David Mills, Berlusconi's Lawyer, was convicted of perjury in order to promote Berlusconi's impunity[3].
