Sunday, October 3, 2010

How Do I Cook A Thin Sirloin Steak?

a proposito di off-shore...


The recent story on Caribbean offshore company, which would see the brother in law Fini involved at least to the waist, I was awakened from the torpor of one who has bothered to go back in time for news almost like a truffle dog. But after tonight's speech in Milan (yet another of the series) Berlusconi's all pro-active with no holds barred against the judiciary, led me even more to revive the old and dusty story (semidisowned) of the 64 companies off-shore the then Fininvest Fininvest, which was also a secret, a Fininvest shadow. A system of companies domiciled in tax havens that the intention of the Cayman had to remain underground, ready to perform the most delicate operations, those that can not be done in the light of the sun because of pesky laws that hateful posts to the conduct of free entrepreneurs. Instead, the Milan prosecutor's office, unfortunately for Berlusconi, aided by tax police of Her Majesty the Queen of England, was able to discover everything. In particular, we ascertained that the foreign companies through the so-called Fininvest "Group B" were carried out by each budget as well as out of control tax and corporate, many illegal operations: the conquest of Spain in the control of the Telecinco Telepiù, from companies such as climbing Rinascente, Standa and Mondadori a weird billionaire financier Julius Malgara granted to the President of Auditel TV era, from purchasing of players to fund any of the budgets of Milan, from the financing of politicians to pay the judges of the Court of Rome to buy favorable rulings. But to understand how it worked this Fininvest shadow is necessary to make a sort of summary of previous games.
In June 1996, Fininvest, was on the verge of economic collapse. The Alfa has a negative net financial position of 2.396 billion. The managers are looking to squeeze liquidity everywhere. But banks have already made and are on guard. The locomotive of the group (Publitalia 80, the dealer who collects advertising for networks of Berlusconi) has been serving the difficulty of the advertising market. And just to get the money you decide to purchase the Standa.
The company is bad but the home now and pay in cash. In return, providers are paid 120/150/180 days and the "house of the Italian 'is falling apart. But the emergency requires sacrifices. To save Silvio Berlusconi's Fininvest's only one way: take out the most attractive of the group and try to sell on the stock exchange as soon as possible. On 10 June 1996, the Consob, the supervisory board, registered the prospectus for the placement of Mediaset, the new sub-holding of the three television (Canale 5, Rete 4, Italy 1) chaired by Fedele Confalonieri. On page 67 of this document is a section titled "Legal and arbitration proceedings." It has the number 17, perhaps not coincidentally, in four pages and provides an overview of a formidable list of troubles. Here is the final comment: "The company (Mediaset) can not exclude that the share prices can influence a possible negative outcome of these proceedings, including those related to the controlling shareholder, is the attention from the media ' . The document mentions a very modest to the alleged false accounting Fininvest. A line in total. But it is precisely this line that feeds a voltage in the Milan offices of paroxysmal Biscione. The concern is well founded. The Milan prosecutor's office has just received the papers from London's so-called "Fininvest Group B - very discreet." The sexual harassment of the media has focused on the fact that dozens of foreign companies, often controlled in a hidden way, blacks have created funds to 1,100 billion lire. The main tool for these food availability from outside was the sale of counterfeit and altered television and film rights. According to the Milanese judges, politicians, leaders of the group, and so players are paid in questo modo per anni. Nello sforzo di non compromettere lo sbarco in Borsa tutti gli uomini di Mediaset ripetono ossessivamente: noi non c’entriamo con l’inchiesta, noi non c’entriamo con Fininvest. Lo slogan è credibile? No, per tre semplici motivi . Uno: Mediaset è una controllata di Fininvest al 72%. Due: i principali amministratori di Mediaset e quelli di Fininvest sono per lo più le stesse persone. Il terzo è il punto più importante, anche se non sembra. Nel mondo old economy del 1996 una società da quotare viene valutata sulla base del patrimonio. Ora, il patrimonio di Mediaset (nel 1996) è rappresentato dai diritti televisivi, cioè proprio il settore dove i giudici sospettano the most serious offenses. In the period between 1989 and 1991, for example, have volatilazzati $ 600 million in intercompany transactions on rights negotiations in London. The mechanism is simple. Company A buys Company B by which it sells to C for an additional charge. C sells to D and so on to Z. A to Z are all hidden Fininvest subsidiaries. A to Z, it is always the same film. Only it costs a hundred instead of ten. The difference between ten percent are blacks funds. On the other hand, the leaders of the Alfa can be confident that the strong price fluctuations in the trading markets are a normal thing. So much so that the listing Mediaset library of rights, namely the element principale e decisivo per il prezzo di collocamento dell’azione, è valutata 2.078 miliardi. Soltanto l’anno precedente valeva meno della metà (909 miliardi) sulla base di stime fatte prima da Claudio Scola, un perito del Tribunale di Bergamo, con la collaborazione della società specializzata Bannon. L’ultima cifra (2.078 miliardi) è stata indicata nel maggio del 1996 dalla Kagan world media, un’altra società specializzata nella valutazione dei diritti con sede a Los Angeles. Questa ricostruzione dimostra come , nel giugno 1996, l’ombra del Fininvest Group B sulla quotazione di Mediaset sia alquanto spessa e inevitabilmente fitta. In Italia, però, nessuno sembra accorgersene. Each stakeholder has her eyes fixed on his particular act and under the rules of his craft.
Let us start by the judiciary. The deputy prosecutor in charge of the investigation is Francesco Greek. It 'an expert on financial crimes supported by a brilliant team of police. Although it is a historical member of the pool clean hands, does not agree with the method of Di Pietro made arrests, confessions and investigations faster. But clashes between the two have had little publicity and Peter took off his gown a year and a half earlier. Greek holds good documentary evidence. He asked and received valuable support from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), an anti-crime financial structures more prepared. On 16 April 1996 the SFO, the British raided the London studios of CMM Group EDSAC lawyer David McKenzie Mills. The booty was rich. Mills ran dozens of foreign companies on behalf of Fininvest, and other Italian groups such as Benetton. Heavy evidence seems to show that enormous sums have been withheld from the official accounts from 1989 and up to stesso1996.
All major newspapers talk about it and not just in Italy. They take care of the deal, the British and then the English, since, 22 May 1996, Judge Baltazar Garzon is presented in Milan for help in its investigation of the occult control of Telecinco. But all this commotion, strangely, does not disturb too much the Consob. The monitoring body at the time led by Enzo Berlanda, appears satisfied with the purpose clause in paragraph 17 of the prospectus. Who buys Mediaset securities do so at your own risk, as always happens in the stock market. Mediaset Perhaps the risk is a bit 'higher, but so be it. Between Consob and the judiciary there is no communication because there is not mandatory. The judiciary is the judiciary that is independent and depends only on the law. And the Consob? As despised, and considered by many as an institution almost useless, Consob is an autonomous body equally. With a small difference. Its commissioners are not appointed for a competition, as judges, but by the Treasury. In other words, Consob responds to the executive. The Secretary of the Treasury, appointed May 18, 1996, is not any one. His name is Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and was governor of the Bank of Italy. By his government, led by Romano Prodi, the green light comes to listing Mediaset.
The Olive Tree, again in those days, shows a great sense of responsibility
. Does not interfere in the listing of Mediaset and the judiciary to let go its way and Consob for her, even if the two streets will never meet, although there are 1.1 trillion of funds finished blacks, among others, to Bettino Craxi and Cesare Previti, is also if the controlling shareholder of Fininvest, and is named in the hands of the opposition leader, even if Fininvest will maintain a close management control of Mediaset (after listing) as a shareholder, even if the rumors of sales of TV Rupert Murdoch's Alfa spread by Berlusconi will prove timely virus hoaxes. In June 1996, what really matters to Romano Prodi, and even more to Massimo D'Alema, Berlusconi is a relaxed attitude, so as to achieve the reforms of the Bicameral. Even if the reforms will not. The strategic mistake of the Olive, most of all afraid of disturbing the goods, cleared for a period of at least politically sette anni in cui il gruppo Fininvest è stato gestito nell’assoluto disprezzo delle leggi che regolano i mercati stessi. Il 23 gennaio 2001 arriva puntuale la richiesta della Procura di Milano di rinvio a giudizio per Berlusconi, Confalonieri, Galliani, Livolsi e per tutti gli altri manager. Dai pubblici ministeri milanesi vengono elencati una serie di misfatti societari impressionanti. I 1.100 miliardi di fondi neri sono serviti per frodare il fisco, presentare bilanci abbellitti rispetto alla realtà, controllare canali tv contro la normativa antitrust. Sono pratiche che si possono condensare in una sola espressione: concorrenza sleale. A questo disinvolto stile manageriale va aggiunto il pagamento di uomini politici al fine di ottenere favorable treatment in the law on TV. Moreover, the three fire companies very discreet (1989-1991) is crucial for the core business of Alfa Empire. Those three years when the hardest moments of the battle for control of the issuer. After fierce clashes parliamentarians in October 1990 Parliament passes the law Mama. For the Republican congressman Oscar Mammi and his party will be the swan song. Besieged by Craxi's Caf Andreotti and Forlani, the PRI will be released by the government in April 1991. The new minister is the Social Democrat Carlo Vizzini but the law remains. Vince duopoly with three goals in as many at Fininvest and RAI that However, it has the trump card. On June 1, 1991 Telepiù debut, the first Italian pay-tv. Fininvest has an official participation of 10% but the controversy over a control hidden by Berlusconi started now, barely held back by the guarantor for the publishing industry, Giuseppe Santaniello. The newspapers of the time can not, of course, give notice of two other events that take place in the same months of 1991 in the secret paradise of some foreign company. In September, the All Iberian, an offshore corporation funded by the Guernsey Financial Silvio Berlusconi of Luxemburg (later Société financière internationale d'investissement), pay 15 billion lire on account of holding Northern TDB Geneva. From there the money goes into an account of the Banque Internationale de Luxembourg in the name of Mauro Giallombardo but referred to Craxi. The other operation license plate 1991 are 91 billion of treasury bonds, from the personal funds of Berlusconi, monetized credit institutions of San Marino and, according to some witnesses to the acts of the investigation, used to "finance the policy."
are the same year in which part of the operation of Telecinco, the English broadcaster bought by Alfa through All Iberian and Catwell with a screen created by joint and Principal Finance, the company that in 1991 filled the same All Iberian billion, the financing of Socialist Party. Concessions for Italian TV arriving in August 1992. Just in time. Six months earlier, in February, had been arrested a Mario Chiesa, a Socialist, and that stop had created great inconvenience to Craxi. In 1993, in full Tangentopoli, part of the "wave design". Here are its main stages. Mediaset, a small Ltd, includes the business of spa Reteitalia that controls some of the most important group of Londoners working in the trading of rights. In February 1994, while Berlusconi is preparing to win his first election, Mediaset Ltd. is incorporated in future financial and disappears. In December, financial future and change the name to be called back Mediaset srl. In the same month Malta to set up the International Media Services ltd. At the same time, companies trading in London administered lawyer David Mills are gradually emptied until, in March of 1995, Mediaset goes public. Disappear from official papers for the latest company Mills (Leopard Communications, Lion Communications, Nst), while IMS enter into activities in Valletta. Maltese society immediately becomes the keystone of the system of rights. Since the first year it is a mass of about half of the entire volume bought by Mediaset in 1995 (1.173 billion). Even the IMS, which also will appear in the IPO prospectus of Mediaset, it is maximum transparency. The head office in Saint John Street, Valletta, is little more than a point of support given by two local nominees imposed by corporate law. The offices are operating in Lugano, Switzerland, and from there the film deal with the majors in Los Angeles. Until landing on the stock market, then, the heart of Mediaset will be abroad, in spite of suspicions about the Fininvest Group B. The placement is a success. Six months after listing in early 1997, Fininvest is left with a positive net financial position and liquidity of 500 billion in cash. The shareholders are happy. D'Alema chairs the bicameral Commission. Consob supervises. Dr. Greek prepares its request of trial. Everyone, in short, cultivates her garden, in full independence. Why "offellee ago mestee el tò" ('pastry chef, makes your job) as he always says Knight. Only he who is an entrepreneur with employers, workers with the workers, and farmer with Coldiretti striker with striker, has no problems garden. Italy is the great estates. And apparently still continues to collect undisturbed its rich fruit. But maybe soon someone (the Judiciary?) Will submit the bill. Definitive.

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