Marco Travaglio
Elio Veltri
A TALE OF TWO CONTROVERSIAL DOSSIERS
From:
L'ODORE DEI SOLDI
Origini e misteri delle fortune di Silvio Berlusconi
(The fortune-hunter.
The origins of and mysteries surrounding Silvio Berlusconi's fortunes)
Published by Editori Riuniti
Let's do some roleplaying. Your stay at that fancy five star hotel is over. Time to pay the bill before checking out. Go to the bank. Withdraw ten million liras from your current account in cash (small banknotes). Go back to the hotel and try to pay using these small bills. What happens next? The receptionist will probably ask you to wait while he/she calls in the manager from the back room. The hotel manager will be very curious and will want to see you. The next thing you know, the police are there wanting to know where you got the cash from. Illicit money?
Now, what do you think would happen if you turned up at a bank and said you wanted to make not a ten million but a 44 billion lira cash deposit? Of course, you'd have a truck outside (a large truck) and a few porters to give you a hand. After all, it is a lot of money. Silvio Berlusconi - a rising young real estate agent at the time - did something like this on 6th April 1977. He deposited or had others deposit 8 billion liras (the equivalent of 44 billion liras today) to increase the stock capital of his company, Fininvest Srl (a leap from 2.5 to 10.5 billion liras). To this day, nobody knows where all that ready cash came from. We don't know, and neither do the experts, like Dr Francesco Giuffrida, a Bank of Italy official and technical consultant appointed by the district division of the anti-Mafia unit of the Palermo Attorney's Office to work on "procedimento 6031/94 Dda", an investigation into the activities of Marcello Dell'Utri, accused of "concorso esterno in associazione mafiosa" (external complicity in Mafia activities). Giuffrida was entrusted with this task as an expert 'on loan' from the Bank of Italy to the Palermo Attorney's Office. A year later, he presented his report, "Prima nota informativa sui flussi finanziari delle società denominate Holding Italiana 1-22" (preliminary notes concerning the financial flows of the companies named Holding Italiana 1a to 22a). The holding companies - linked to Berlusconi's group - were investigated in an attempt to find out where the money for many mysterious transactions came from and how it was used. These transactions created that vast Russian dolls arrangement of business interests that characterises the Fininvest empire. The sums involved came to a total of at least 115 billion liras, 1980s value (i.e. 500 billions, today). Whose was the money? We don't know. The second enquiry into the same operations was drawn up for the Attorney's Office by Sgt. Ciuro, a Palermo DIA anti-Mafia squad operative, and came to the same conclusion. But we shall look into that report later. First, let's examine Giuffrida's "rapporto Bankitalia" (Bank of Italy report).
"At present, we do not know where the money came from", Giuffrida wrote, referring to the eight billion liras desposited 22 years ago. Probably we'll never know. Berlusconi prefers not to go into the early days of his business empire. Neither does the press - evidently - which more or less ignored Giuffrida's highly significant report, filed by the enquiring magistrates at the Palermo Courts Office on 21st April 2000. The weekly magazine, L'Espresso, ran a story in July. The daily newspapers dedicated a line or two to the report, and the tone was generally very low key. The newspaper, il Manifesto [a left-wing daily - translator's note] observed, surprisingly enough, that information of this kind "would have little effect on voters and might even be counter-productive". For reasons best known to itself, il Manifesto suggested that the report "may be flawed". The television news programmes completely ignored the story. A number of politicians expressed irritation. Walter Veltroni [a leader of the democratic left party in the centre-left anti-Berlusconi front - translator's note], for example, went so far as to make a solemn vow (to whom? why?) that he "would never use the L'Espresso [sic] dossier". Self-styled 'liberal' editorial writers, political analysts and social commentators were unresponsive - despite the fact that these revelations directly concerned a former Prime Minister. It was clearly below them to ask Berlusconi where he "got his money from". This is literally what Antonio Di Pietro [a former 'clean hands' magistrate turned politician - translator's note] very bluntly asked.
We have only two versions of events to choose from. The capital was legally obtained or it was not. If it was, Berlusconi should not hesitate for one moment. He should come forward with explanations and written confirmation of what he's saying. He should dispel the ugly rumours surrounding his past. The alternative view is that the money was obtained illegally - some taking the form of ready cash, some bank drafts, and practically none of it fully accounted for. The impression is that Berlusconi is hiding something. If this is the case, it would explain the nebulosity of the events of at least thirty years ago. The so-called liberals look on wide-eyed as Berlusconi rails against our democratic order and destroys very bedrock upon which it rests - the principle of accountability.
Every year, members of parliament are obliged to publicly display their tax returns. Voters have a chance to see how much their deputies earn, what they do to earn it, who pays them and how much they pay in taxes. The law concerning the public financing of political parties obliges all parties and candidates to declare where they received the various contributions made for their political campaigns. Everybody must know who a politician's backers are. This puts us in a better position to judge their actions. Such principles are now a thing of the past. How did Fininvest come into existence? Who can explain its extremely rapid growth? Or Fininvest's youngest daughter, Mediaset? Where did it all come from? That is the question. In any country with a claim to normality or, rather, decency - at least in part - one question must be answered. People can interview Berlusconi as much as they like, and do. They can arrange assemblies, conduct seminars, engage in parliamentary debate and so on, but there's one question they must ask: "Excuse me, Mr Berlusconi, I'd like to know where you got your money from, who gave it to you, and why."
The Bank of Italy dossier created a much bigger stir abroad than in Italy itself. The highly reputed newspaper, Le Monde, for instance, commented, "Silvio Berlusconi is the wealthiest man in Italy. He is head of the opposition and runs a press and television empire with three channels. He wants to become the next Prime Minister. However, once again, people are wondering how on earth Berlusconi, the son of a modest bank clerk, managed to create such an empire and where the money came from".
In Italy, the debate (what little debate there has been) focused on the Bank of Italy and its influence on Dr Giuffrida. The question of how and why Mr Berlusconi got his money was lost by the wayside.
Why? When L'Espresso announced that Giuffrida had filed his dossier at the Palermo law courts (the dossier had therefore become part of the public domain and was publishable), Fininvest and Il Giornale, a national newspaper belonging to Berlusconi, were very annoyed indeed. The Bank of Italy was 'urged' not to subscribe to the conclusions of one of its own officials. On 27th July 2000, L'Espresso announced to the press agencies what the article would be about. The next day, all the dailies with the exception of Il Giornale carried a story on the report and also mentioned that Fininvest had threatened to take L'Espresso to the courts (Fininvest's threats were vague - for one thing - and rather absurd, since L'Espresso was publishing official data and acting within its rights). On 29th July, Il Giornale, instead, ran the following headline, "Fazio confutes L'Espresso's dossier against Berlusconi" [Antonio Fazio is Governor of the Bank of Italy - translator's note]. The article also carried a threat directed at Dr Giuffrida, whose only 'crime' was that he'd offered his services to the Palermo Attorney's Office after he had been chosen for this task the Bank of Italy. Il Giornale commented: "Of course, no-one knows how L'Espresso's journalists got hold of it [the dossier]. However, the author, who had been 'loaned' by the Bank of Italy to the magistrates, may well have passed it on to them. In that case, the least he can expect is immediate dismissal. However, the consequences of his actions may well be even ...
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