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Comment by jll29 | Hacker News Reader

Berlusconi was said to have had ties to organized crime, going back to his time as a real estate lawyer. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/dec/04/silvio-berlusc...

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Anywhere in the world, I doubt any real estate business functions with no contact with criminal organizations and local politics - too much money depends on regulations and their executive applications or lack thereof. In early 90's Italy ? Is that even a question ?

Yeah... this was well illustrated in The Wire.

Aren't politicians with ties to the mafia quite common in Italy?

Aren't politicians with ties to the mafia quite common?

Like the recent Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon getting arrested a couple of days ago (and released, for the time being).

Mafia? Sturgeon? Are you serious?

Amounts for Sturgeon are indeed so low.

For 100s of millions, I'd rather look at us politicians ("Democrats") that trade stock and receive large paychecks from corporations... In exchange of what exactly?

Seems like a fairly straightforward misappropriation of party funds at this point, I don't think there's any suggestion she was playing around with taxpayer money

It is an odd consequence of the free speech and contempt of court laws in both countries that we can see inside the US president's house and look at the pile of illegal documents, while, sitting here in Scotland, the charges against Sturgeon remain extremely vague and it's basically illegal to discuss whether there is any substance to them.

> it's basically illegal to discuss whether there is any substance to them.

Could you elaborate?

UK contempt of court laws prohibit "publications" from influencing any future trial (publications taken to mean any communication addressed to the public - including twitter etc).

Of all the examples of 'possibly mafia connected' politicians, you chose Sturgeon?!

Literally lol.

Aren't politician with ties quite common?

no they are not, unless by mafia you are generalizing the term "organized chrime"

That seems like what a person affiliated with politicians would say :-)

No. They are not.

As a staunch Italian hater of anything Berlusconi, we still have to agree that he was never found guilty of those charges, though--it doesn't mean he was involved, but the judiciary system in Italy had also its own agenda and an obsession with indicting Berlusconi that, tbh, backfired against the court system in a big way.

that's not what happened.

most of them ended because the limitation period expired, thanks to his lawyers being elected in Parliament to fix his trials.

Uh, he was never a lawyer ... At the start he was a real estate developer.

His TV empire did start as small local TV channel for Milano 2, a residential neighbourhood he built in the "70.

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