Italy court upholds Berlusconi tax fraud verdict

MILAN (AP) — An appeals court upheld the tax fraud conviction and four-year prison sentence against former Premier Silvio Berlusconi on Wednesday in a case that could see him barred from public office for five years.

In Italy, convictions are not considered definitive until all appeals are exhausted, and Berlusconi's lawyers are expected to appeal the case to the nation's highest Court of Cassation.

In October, a lower court convicted Berlusconi in a scheme that involved inflating the price his Mediaset media empire paid for TV rights to U.S. movies and pocketing the difference. Berlusconi has long denied the charges and says he's a victim of politically motivated prosecutors.

Wednesday's Milan appellate court ruling upheld the lower court's October decision barring him from public office for five years and from managing any company for three years.

Berlusconi appeared prepared for the decision, going on his Mediaset TG5 news on Tuesday night to proclaim his innocence and portray the case as a political witch hunt against him and designed to "eliminate a political adversary."

Berlusconi has been convicted in the past at the trial level. But the convictions have always either been overturned on appeal or seen the statute of limitations run out before Italy's high court could have its say.

Wednesday's ruling comes days before another one of Berlusconi's trials approaches the final leg. Closing arguments are scheduled Monday in Berlusconi's sex-for-hire trial. In that case, the media mogul is on trial in Milan on charges he paid for sex with an underage Moroccan teen during the infamous "bunga-bunga" parties at his villa and then tried to cover it up. Both he and the woman, Karima el-Mahroug, better known as Ruby, deny sexual contact. A ruling in that case could come before the end of the month.

In the Mediaset case, prosecutors allege Berlusconi and other the defendants were behind a scheme to purchase the rights to broadcast U.S. movies on Berlusconi's private television network and falsely declared the payments to avoid taxes.

They said the defendants then inflated the price for the TV rights of some 3,000 films as they relicensed them internally to Berlusconi's networks, pocketing the difference amounting to around euro250 million.

View the original article here

NC tobacco broker sentenced to 5 years for fraud

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- A North Carolina tobacco broker will spend 5½ years in federal prison and must repay more than $13 million for cheating the federal crop insurance program.

U.S. District Judge James Dever on Thursday sentenced Jesse Ray "Tommy" Faulkner of Southern Pines. The 54-year-old pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy in an agreement with prosecutors.

Prosecutors say he paid North Carolina and Kentucky farmers and middlemen cash for tobacco, allowing the farmers an opportunity to also collect insurance payments for plants they claimed were damaged or destroyed.

The case comes as federal investigators break up a massive scheme by dozens of eastern North Carolina insurance agents, claims adjusters, brokers and farmers to steal at least $100 million from the government-backed crop insurance program.

View the original article here

Israel police probe alleged lawmaker voter fraud

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli police are investigating allegations that lawmakers from the centrist Labor Party were involved in vote-buying schemes in their primary elections.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Tuesday investigators were looking into evidence that lawmakers paid for votes to improve their standing in the primary election.

Rosenfeld would not list the lawmakers. Labor Party leader Shelly Yachimovich named a former party head in an interview on Israeli Army Radio, and Israeli media pointed at two other suspects.

The lawmakers denied the allegations.

Labor won 15 of the 120 seats in Israel's parliament in January 22 elections, finishing as the third largest party.

Rosenfeld said police are also investigating possible vote-buying misconduct by a lawmaker from the nationalist Jewish Home party.

View the original article here

Mexico arrests head of teacher's union on fraud charges

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico on Tuesday arrested Elba Esther Gordillo, the powerful head of the country's teachers' union, on suspicion of embezzling the union's funds, the Mexican attorney general said.

Authorities accuse Gordillo, who is viewed as one of the key obstacles to education reform in Mexico, of siphoning off millions of pesos of union money into private accounts, Jesus Murillo told reporters at a news conference.

"Clearly, we're facing a case in which the money of education workers has been misused illegally for the benefit of various people, including Elba Esther Gordillo," Murillo said. "Under this government nobody is above the law."

The arrest of Gordillo, who critics have for years accused of corruption, came a day after the Mexican government signed a broad education reform into law.

The Mexican teachers' union fought against the law, which limits union control over hiring and teaching standards, and aims to improve Mexico's failing school system.

(Reporting by Gabriel Stargardter; editing by Jackie Frank)

View the original article here

NC man sentenced in huge crop insurance fraud

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) -- A North Carolina man is headed to prison for his role in a $21 million crop insurance fraud.

Jimmy Thomas Sasser of Wilson pleaded guilty Wednesday to mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiring to make false statements and to threatening a witness. A federal judge sentenced him to four years in prison, a term reduced due to cooperation with investigators that led to other convictions.

Prosecutors say the 61-year-old former insurance adjuster conspired with others from 1996 to 2007 to falsify claims of weather damage to farmers' tobacco. As part of his sentence, Sasser agreed to pay more than $21 million in restitution.

He is the latest in a string of convictions in North Carolina of insurance agents, adjusters and farmers who conspired to defraud the federal crop insurance program.

View the original article here