US authorities have raided the home and offices of a Hollywood producer in connection with an Italian tax fraud case against former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, the Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday.
FBI agents searched the home and business of producer Frank Agrama at the request of Italian authorities just days before Berlusconi's trial opened last week, the daily said.
The raid centered on Italian allegations that Agrama, Berlusconi and others fraudulently inflated the price of TV rights originally bought by Agrama so that millions of dollars in kickbacks could be paid to executives of Berlusconi's media empire, the newspaper said, citing Los Angeles court documents.
Italian authorities had made their first request for US help in the case in May 2003, the paper said, citing the documents.
TAX FRAUD CHARGES
Berlusconi, his British lawyer David Mills and a dozen other defendants stand accused of tax fraud in the purchase of film rights in the US by Mediaset, the television group owned by the Berlusconi family.
Berlusconi is accused of money laundering by using offshore companies to buy the film rights between 1994 and 1999 and then reselling them at inflated prices to Mediaset, which ended up paying less tax in Italy.
The former prime minister faces between four and 12 years in jail if convicted.
Agrama founded the TV production, acquisition and distribution company Harmony Gold USA in 1983, the Times said.
He produced the miniseries Heidi, which aired on the Disney Channel, and the horror flick Dawn of the Mummy.
BERLUSCONI'S HEALTH
Berlusconi's trial was postponed on Monday after the 70-year-old briefly lost consciousness on Sunday during a political rally. The trial is scheduled to resume today.
He left the San Raffaele hospital in Milan on Wednesday where he had been undergoing three days of heart tests.
"Everything fine," he was quoted as saying by the ANSA new agency. "I feel busier than before, maybe I'll have to limit my commitments."
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