Italy's Prime Minister In Hot Water Over Jet Getaway

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jun 5th 2009 at 11:21PM

Italy's garrulous Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been caught defending his excesses again. The Wall Street Journal reports that on Thursday Berlusconi admitted that he used a state plane to give guests a ride to his private villa but that because he and other government officials were flying on the jet it was perfectly kosher. Rome prosecutors had launched an investigation to see if Berlusconi abused his powers by letting his guests avail themselves of government aircraft and official security escorts as they were whisked away to the island of Sardinia.

Berlusconi who may be on the brink of an epically messy divorce, is well known for mixing business with pleasure. For the most part Italian voters have tolerated Berlusconi's peccadillos thus far but with the new scandal that includes racy pictures of half-naked women taken at the private villa, public loyalty is being tested. But he remains appealing even amid the economic downturn because no matter what else he is, the politician and businessman who has a $6.5 billion fortune and owns Italy's three biggest private TV networks, is always entertaining.

Tags: italy, silvio berlusconi, SilvioBerlusconi

Filed under: Wealth

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Corey Jun 6th 2009 12:38AM

He should be a politician here in America where the taxpayers front all the expenses that have nothing to do with government business, like $200k dates. Maybe he can double with the Obamas.