Berlusconi, who turns 75 later this month, has boasted of his weakness for young, beautiful women, an inclination cited by his second wife, who is divorcing him.
Rome, Italy – Italian newspapers yesterday were filled with transcripts of intercepted phone conversations of a jailed southern businessman, Gianpaolo Tarantini, who is being investigated for allegedly arranging and paying for women to prostitute themselves at parties at Berlusconi's private residences in Rome, the Sardinia seacoast, and near Milan. Intercepted conversations that are part of investigations may be published once they are officially deposited in the court – in this case, in Bari, southeast Italy.
Concern was also growing in Italy over whether Silvio Berlusconi, who allegedly boasted in an intercepted phone conversation that he "did only eight" women in one night, can concentrate on rescuing Italy from its severe economic woes. - Berlusconi, who turns 75 later this month, has denied ever paying for sex. But he has boasted of his weakness for young, beautiful women, an inclination cited by his second wife, who is divorcing him.
Prostitution is not a crime in Italy, but exploiting prostitutes, as Tarantini is alleged to have done to try to curry favours with Berlusconi to win state contracts, is. In a separate probe, Tarantini is jailed for allegedly extorting hundreds of thousands of dollars from Berlusconi. The Italian prime minister says he gave Tarantini and Tarantini's wife, who was also arrested, money because he is a generous man who was trying to help a "family in need."
The Milan daily Corriere della Sera quoted the Italian prime minister as telling Tarantini in one telephone call that he had to go that evening to Milan because the plane at his disposition was only available then. Tarantini then purportedly asks Berlusconi if he and some of the women could go with him from Rome to Milan, and Berlusconi replied "you can."
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