Italian police on Monday disclosed an attempt to extort former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi by bandits who held his accountant hostage and offered to sell sensitive documents for 35 million euros (US$44.7 million).
Police told a news conference in Milan that they had arrested three Italians and three Albanians on suspicion of kidnapping and extortion, but many questions remained unanswered in what the Italian media said remained a mysterious episode.
Police said three men held Giuseppe Spinelli and his wife hostage at their home overnight on Oct. 15 and demanded money in exchange for documents they said could help Berlusconi win an appeals trial.
It was not clear from what emerged at the news conference what type of documents the extortionists had. Spinelli told police he saw some of the documents, but police did elaborate.
The aggressors told Spinelli the papers could overturn a court ruling last year that forced Berlusconi’s Fininvest empire to pay 560 million euros to rival media company CIR in compensation for a takeover battle over publisher Mondadori that was marred by corruption.
The extortionists forced Spinelli to call Berlusconi on the morning of Oct. 16 and tell him about the documents.
Berlusconi called his lawyer, who in turn called Spinelli, while the bandits were still there. They left after an agreement to get back in touch with Spinelli and at least one other telephone contact was made.
The authorities were not informed until more than 24 hours later, when Berlusconi’s lawyers filed a complaint. Niccolo Ghedini, Berlusconi’s lawyer, told reporters he called Spinelli and told him to ask the bandits to bring the documents to Berlusconi’s residence in Milan.
“Spinelli told me he could not and I could tell from the tone of his voice that something was wrong. Spinelli was under shock. He was worried about his wife and his daughter and his granddaughter, who all live in the same neighborhood,” Ghedini said.
Police told the news conference no money was handed over and had no explanation why the complaint was not made for 24 hours.
In an investigation that was kept secret for more than a month, police used closed-circuit TV footage to track down the extortionists, including three accomplices who did not take part directly in the kidnapping.
Spinelli, an accountant in charge of Berlusconi’s finances, paid showgirls to attend the media mogul’s infamous “bunga bunga” parties, according to testimony he gave an Italian court.
Indonesia and Malaysia have become the first countries to block Grok, the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI, after authorities said it was being misused to generate sexually explicit and nonconsensual images. The moves reflect growing global concern over generative AI tools that can produce realistic images, sound and text, while existing safeguards fail to prevent their abuse. The Grok chatbot, which is accessed through Musk’s social media platform X, has been criticized for generating manipulated images, including depictions of women in bikinis or sexually explicit poses, as well as images involving children. Regulators in the two Southeast Asian
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
The Chinese Embassy in Manila yesterday said it has filed a diplomatic protest against a Philippine Coast Guard spokesman over a social media post that included cartoonish images of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Jay Tarriela and an embassy official had been trading barbs since last week over issues concerning the disputed South China Sea. The crucial waterway, which Beijing claims historic rights to despite an international ruling that its assertion has no legal basis, has been the site of repeated clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Tarriela’s Facebook post on Wednesday included a photo of him giving a
Yemen’s separatist leader has vowed to keep working for an independent state in the country’s south, in his first social media post since he disappeared earlier this month after his group briefly seized swathes of territory. Aidarous al-Zubaidi’s United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC) forces last month captured two Yemeni provinces in an offensive that was rolled back by Saudi strikes and Riyadh’s allied forces on the ground. Al-Zubaidi then disappeared after he failed to board a flight to Riyadh for talks earlier this month, with Saudi Arabia accusing him of fleeing to Abu Dhabi, while supporters insisted he was
RSS