by the fans for the fans

Harmony Gold Founder/Robotech Producer Sentenced for Tax Fraud
posted on 2012-10-26 13:20 EDT

www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-10-26...tenced-for-tax-fraud

Frank Agrama, former Prime Minister Berlusconi, others still have 2 appeals available in Italy

Frank Agrama, the founder of Harmony Gold USA and an executive producer of the Robotech dubbed anime projects, was sentenced to three years in prison by a Milan court for tax fraud on Friday alongside four other individuals, including former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi was sentenced to four years.

Berlusconi, Agrama, and the other defendants have also been ordered to pay 10 million euros (about US$12.9 million) in damages. A total of 11 people were on trial, but three others were found not guilty. Four others were cleared due to the statute of limitations running out.

Berlusconi is expected to appeal the decision, and he has two levels of appeal available. The appeals could take several years to conclude, and the Italian statute of limitations in the case is set to expire for Berlusconi next year.

The case, which began in 2006, revolved around numerous non-Robotech-related Paramount properties that Agrama resold to Berlusconi's media company Fininvest. Agrama acted as a middleman, reselling Paramount properties to Berlusconi's companies for broadcast in Italy. The prosecution had argued that Fininvest overpaid Agrama for the rights to those properties, making it appear that Finvest was less profitable, while extra funds were transferred to an offshore slush fund account owned by Berlusconi.

Agrama is an executive producer of Robotech and almost all its sequel attempts, and he remains the chairman and CEO of Harmony Gold USA. Harmony Gold USA also credits Agrama as one of two screenplay writers of the Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles sequel.

Silvio Berlusconi Sentenced To Four Years In Jail For Fraud On Movie Rights Deals

www.deadline.com/2012/10/silvio-berlusco...-movie-rights-deals/

Italian media mogul and erstwhile Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was handed a four-year jail sentence by a Milan court today, although it’s unlikely he’ll serve the time. Berlusconi and other executives at his Italian media conglomerate Mediaset were alleged to have inflated prices paid for broadcast rights to U.S. movies and TV shows via offshore companies controlled by Berlusconi’s holding company Fininvest. The accused were then alleged to have skimmed off part of the money to create illegal slush funds. The deals in question were worth 470M euros and occurred between 1994 and 1999, according to Reuters. The judge gave the controversial mogul a slightly longer sentence than the 3 years and 8 months prosecutors were seeking and also levied a fine of $12.96M. Berlusconi is expected to appeal the verdict in a case that began more than six years ago. He has two appeals available to him before the sentence is set in stone and won’t serve any jail time unless the last appeal fails. Berlusconi has been in court before over his business dealings, but he’s always been cleared or seen the statute of limitations expire. The statute in this case runs out in 2013, according to The Financial Times, and any appeals could take several years. Shares in Mediaset were down 3% after the ruling.

Silvio Berlusconi sentenced for tax fraud

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been handed a jail sentence and barred from office after being found guilty of tax fraud.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20102215

The Milan court sentenced him to four years but later cut it to one year because of an amnesty law.

Mr Berlusconi condemned the sentence as "intolerable judicial harassment". He will remain free pending appeals.

He and others were accused of buying US film rights at inflated prices via two offshore companies under his control.

It is the first time Mr Berlusconi - who has faced a number of trials - has been convicted of any crime concerning his business activities.

He has in the past either been cleared, or cases have run beyond the judicial time limit.

In 1997 he received a suspended sentence for false book-keeping but that conviction was reversed on appeal.

In the case for which he was sentenced on Friday, prosecutors argued that part of the money declared for the purchase of film rights was skimmed off to create illegal slush funds, reducing tax liabilities for Mr Berlusconi's Mediaset group.


The court handed Mr Berlusconi a longer sentence than the three years and eight months requested by prosecutors. However, it later announced that the sentence would be cut to one year due to a 2006 amnesty law aimed at reducing prison overcrowding.

It ordered him and his co-defendants to pay 10m euros (£8m) in damages and banned him from holding public office for three years.

Both the jail term and the ban would only take effect if the sentence is upheld by a higher court, Italian news agency Ansa reported.

"It is a political, incredible and intolerable judgement," Mr Berlusconi said on Italia 1 - one of the TV stations he owns.

"It is without any doubt a political verdict just as all the cases invented against me are political."

In all, 11 people were on trial.

Three were acquitted including Mediaset chairman Fedele Confalonieri, a close associate of Mr Berlusconi, and four were cleared because the statute of limitations had run out.

The three others convicted alongside the former prime minister included Hollywood producer Frank Agrama, who received a three-year sentence.

The trial began six years ago and has been subject to repeated delays, in part because of an immunity law that protected Mr Berlusconi while he was prime minister.

SO ACCORDING TO THE ANN NEWS SOURCE ..


1. In all, 11 people were on trial.

Three were acquitted including Mediaset chairman Fedele Confalonieri, a close associate of Mr Berlusconi, and four were cleared because the statute of limitations had run out.

The three others convicted alongside the former prime minister included Hollywood producer Frank Agrama, who received a three-year sentence.

2. Both the jail term and the ban would only take effect if the sentence is upheld by a higher court, Italian news agency Ansa reported.

3. Berlusconi has been in court before over his business dealings, but he’s always been cleared or seen the statute of limitations expire. The statute in this case runs out in 2013, according to The Financial Times, and any appeals could take several years.




SO THEY JUST HAVE TO SIT ON THE BALL AND LET TIME EXPIRE TILL 2013 AND WIN THROUGH STATUTE OF LIMITATIONS. WOW.

GUESS WE BACK TO NORMAL.

Harmony Gold Founder/Robotech Producer (Frank Agrama ) to Serve No Jail Time

Silvio fury after fraud conviction
Pol threatens to bring down Italo government

Variety reported: Today
www.variety.com/article/VR1118061343

By Nick Vivarelli
ROME -- Silvio Berlusconi has reacted to his conviction in a tax fraud case concerning TV rights deals with Hollywood studios by threatening to bring down Italy's government in a rampage that could also damage his Mediaset TV empire. The fuming 76-year-old billionaire and former prime minister said he may withdraw his support from current prime minister Mario Monti, a day after the Milan court handed him a four-year sentence on Friday. Berlusconi is appealing the verdict.
During a Milan presser Berlusconi lashed out against the judges who convicted him, calling them leftist dictators, and said he would decide in the next few days whether his center-right PDL party, the largest in parliament, should pull out of government.
The prospect that Berlusconi, in raging bull mode, may cause Monti to topple, has commentators spooked. "The damage would be enormous," said Stefano Folli, editor of Italo financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore on Sunday, citing "international anxiety" and a "general discrediting" of Italy among consequences.
The court found Berlusconi guilty of using offshore companies to buy TV rights to some 3,000 movies from studios, including Paramount and Fox, at inflated prices between 1995 and 1998 to evade taxes and create a slush fund. The court also convicted Hollywood-based producer and sales agent Frank Agrama, who allegedly negotiated the bulk of these deals. Agrama, who claims he's innocent, will not serve jail time thanks to an Italo amnesty on convictions of three years or less.
The same amnesty partly applies to Berlusconi, reducing his four-year sentence to a year. He's unlikely to go to jail due to his age and the lengthy appeals process, which will probably outrun the statute of limitations. The court also ordered €10 million ($12.96 million) damages to be paid by Berlusconi and his co-defendants to Italo tax authorities.
According to the court, the exec handling the fraudulent deals on Berlusconi's behalf was the now deceased Carlo Bernasconi, the former prexy of Berlusconi's film unit, Medusa.Mediaset CEO Fedele Confalonieri was acquitted. Berlusconi announced he was retreating from politics just days before his guilty verdict. On Saturday, in an abrupt about-face, he announced he was "staying in the game." This does not mean he will seek to run the country again -- the ruling barred Berlusconi from holding public office for five years -- but he will wield power to, as he put it "reform Italy's justice system."
He has long claimed to be a victim of political persecution by local judiciary.This is Berlusconi's first conviction in a series of trials that earned him the nickname the "Teflon don," because of his ability to avoid conviction during his time in office.
While it is too early to gauge the verdict's impact on Mediaset, which is battered by a double-digit advertising downturn and TV audience fragmentation, what's clear is that the ties between Italy's top commercial broadcast group and its largest stakeholder are unlikely to be beneficial anytime soon.

MEMO1DOMINION wrote:

Harmony Gold Founder/Robotech Producer (Frank Agrama ) to Serve No Jail Time

Silvio fury after fraud conviction
Pol threatens to bring down Italo government

Variety reported: Today
www.variety.com/article/VR1118061343

By Nick Vivarelli
ROME -- Silvio Berlusconi has reacted to his conviction in a tax fraud case concerning TV rights deals with Hollywood studios by threatening to bring down Italy's government in a rampage that could also damage his Mediaset TV empire. The fuming 76-year-old billionaire and former prime minister said he may withdraw his support from current prime minister Mario Monti, a day after the Milan court handed him a four-year sentence on Friday. Berlusconi is appealing the verdict.
During a Milan presser Berlusconi lashed out against the judges who convicted him, calling them leftist dictators, and said he would decide in the next few days whether his center-right PDL party, the largest in parliament, should pull out of government.
The prospect that Berlusconi, in raging bull mode, may cause Monti to topple, has commentators spooked. "The damage would be enormous," said Stefano Folli, editor of Italo financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore on Sunday, citing "international anxiety" and a "general discrediting" of Italy among consequences.
The court found Berlusconi guilty of using offshore companies to buy TV rights to some 3,000 movies from studios, including Paramount and Fox, at inflated prices between 1995 and 1998 to evade taxes and create a slush fund. The court also convicted Hollywood-based producer and sales agent Frank Agrama, who allegedly negotiated the bulk of these deals. Agrama, who claims he's innocent, will not serve jail time thanks to an Italo amnesty on convictions of three years or less.
The same amnesty partly applies to Berlusconi, reducing his four-year sentence to a year. He's unlikely to go to jail due to his age and the lengthy appeals process, which will probably outrun the statute of limitations. The court also ordered €10 million ($12.96 million) damages to be paid by Berlusconi and his co-defendants to Italo tax authorities.
According to the court, the exec handling the fraudulent deals on Berlusconi's behalf was the now deceased Carlo Bernasconi, the former prexy of Berlusconi's film unit, Medusa.Mediaset CEO Fedele Confalonieri was acquitted. Berlusconi announced he was retreating from politics just days before his guilty verdict. On Saturday, in an abrupt about-face, he announced he was "staying in the game." This does not mean he will seek to run the country again -- the ruling barred Berlusconi from holding public office for five years -- but he will wield power to, as he put it "reform Italy's justice system."
He has long claimed to be a victim of political persecution by local judiciary.This is Berlusconi's first conviction in a series of trials that earned him the nickname the "Teflon don," because of his ability to avoid conviction during his time in office.
While it is too early to gauge the verdict's impact on Mediaset, which is battered by a double-digit advertising downturn and TV audience fragmentation, what's clear is that the ties between Italy's top commercial broadcast group and its largest stakeholder are unlikely to be beneficial anytime soon.

Sounds like water off a ducks back.. no real threat to RT inspite of what others may hope and pray for.

The court ordered ex-premier to carry out one year of community service or be put under house arrest once his parliamentary immunity is lifted.

www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/08/02/316813/...al-basis-berlusconi/

Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi says his trials ‘had no basis in reality’

Friday Aug 02, 201311:46 AM GMT

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has broadcast a video message after Italy’s highest court upheld his prison sentence over tax evasion, saying his charges ‘had no basis in reality.’


Berlusconi, 76, said in a nine-minute video on Italian television late on Thursday, “No-one can understand the veritable violence which has been reserved for me through a series of charges and trials that had no basis in reality.”

The ruling by Rome’s Court of Cassation on Thursday rejected Berlusconi’s second and final appeal in his tax fraud case that relates to the purchase of broadcasting rights by his television network Mediaset.

The court ordered ex-premier to carry out one year of community service or be put under house arrest once his parliamentary immunity is lifted.

The court further said an appeals court should rule on whether he should be banned from holding public office.

“In exchange for the commitments I have made over almost 20 years in favor of my country and coming almost at the end of my public life, I have been rewarded with accusations and a verdict that is founded on absolutely nothing, that takes away my personal freedom and my political rights,” Berlusconi added.

The Italian tycoon also censured Italy’s judicial record, saying, “Is this the Italy that we want? Is this the Italy that we love? Absolutely not.”

It is Berlusconi’s first definitive conviction in a 20-year political career. The ruling came after a three-day hearing and he cannot appeal against it.

At the end of the trial in October 2012, Berlusconi was sentenced to four years in jail. However, his prison term was commuted to a year under a 2006 pardon law.

Berlusconi, who served as Italy’s prime minister from 1994 to 2011, resigned in November 2011 after coming under immense pressure to step down for mishandling the Italian economy.

Dang. I wasn't going to throw any money at the kickstarter anyways, but this just makes it even more questionable. Who wants to fund a convicted fraudster?

Sushispook wrote: Dang. I wasn't going to throw any money at the kickstarter anyways, but this just makes it even more questionable. Who wants to fund a convicted fraudster?

Well, it is subjective anyways. For me, it has no bearing on RT. Unless HG went bankrupt or Frank Agrama close the company, none of it will hurt HG anymore than it is as HG is mostly a real estate company as opposed to a Hollywood production company.

ON A SIDE NOTE... HE WAS NEVER CONVICTED. ALL CHARGES WAS DROPPED.