Berlusconi Embroiled In Prostitution Scandal

UPDATE: Further reports state that Ruby, the aspiring model making allegations against Berlusconi, did not indicate she had sexual relations with him, only that she went to his villa for parties and received gifts. The Telegraph reports that there are no charges facing either party.

Italian Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is being accused of giving a cash "gift" to Ruby, the moniker given to a teenage Moroccan model coming forth with the allegations, the Italian press is reporting. (Read the Google translation here.) The newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano is reporting that Ruby claims to have received 30,000 euro from the 74-year-old prime minister.

Ruby, who is not yet 18, reports that she visited multiple parties at Berlusconi's home last year. She has claimed that their encounters took place in Berlusconi's villa in Arcore, a city outside of Milan, according to the Dallas Blog. The PM has been accused of similar events before, including an alleged affair last year with Noemi Letizia, an aspiring model, after he attended her eighteenth birthday party and gave her an expensive necklace. Berlusconi denied the affair.

The allegations are also being compared with the scandal over Patrizia D'Addario, a call girl who claimed to have been paid to sleep with Berlusconi.

Ruby's allegations emerged after she was picked up by the police for not having a residency permit after being thrown out of an apartment she shared with a roommate in Milan. She asked for leniency because of her connection with Berlusconi, and then made the claims of sexual relations, reports the Telegraph. Investigating magistrates warn that "her accounts were sometimes contradictory and that she had made claims which she subsequently retracted," the Telegraph noted.

Berlusconi denies the affair, saying through a lawyer that, "alleged statements made by 'Ruby' in relation to events at the home of Berlusconi are completely unfounded," reports the First Post.

Comments

[delta7777]

05:00 PM on 11/12/2010

.
[Berlusconi is being accused of giving a cash "gift" to Ruby]

at Silvio's age, "free love" is no longer in the cards
.

[Balzac]

10:12 AM on 11/01/2010

It's not a prostitution scandal, it's a scandal of allegations and rumors of prostitution.

[Balzac]

09:11 AM on 11/01/2010

Young women should keep in mind the value of keeping things in confidence. Their public reputation is what they should seek to protect. Young women do not always realize the value of this.

Their charms may be in demand while they are young and beautiful, but they must protect their reputation for their social status in the future. If they want to be ladies of society, they cannot allow themselves to be mistaken as the entertainment for some man, in whose tracks one may not wish to follow. This is why a woman's reputation should be a paramount concern, after her security.

[Whinger]

01:42 PM on 10/31/2010

If Berlusconi were a cat or a dog he would have been neutered years ago!

[NYC-CatLover]

02:43 PM on 10/30/2010

If he's found guilty and tossed out of office his next career move should be joining the cast of Jersey Shore. He'd fit right in, and have a ball in the hot-tub with Snooki & JWoww

[Francesa Milovo]

12:31 PM on 10/30/2010

http://www.causes.com/causes/532357

more than 35,000 children abducted from the Italian state and sold in the market of "adoption and child abuse and sometimes sent to the grave, the courts are complicit, more social services, in these cases and people of political power, only in 2009 have disappeared more 1000 children, in our case the victims are hundreds, some died in real concentration camps, lives ruined forever, and the guilty are all at home ..........

[Troff]

08:10 PM on 10/29/2010

I don't buy it. Surely B would know by now that the gift has to come first.

[excellent chef]

08:09 PM on 10/29/2010

If ya got it, flaunt it! Go Berli! show 'em what il Duce is made of.

[Blackorpheus]

11:56 AM on 10/29/2010

They'll never nail Berlu on this charge.

[InfinteShibumi]

01:37 PM on 10/29/2010

I know. He's a teflon don...

[mazzetta]

10:21 AM on 10/30/2010

they're working on his blatant abuse of power, because he lied to the police saying she was Mubarak's niece (yes, Egypt's leader, sic.) and send a woman to tutor the girl, but even this tutoring is being revealed as staged in order to trick the judges overseeing minor's proceedings

[Blackorpheus]

12:01 PM on 10/30/2010

Berlu will dodge it.

[ArjenBoatsma]

11:41 AM on 10/29/2010

I'm still debating whether Silvio's motto is "When the president does it, it's not illegal" or "It's good to be the king".

[Jennifer Hagan]

12:00 PM on 10/29/2010

I think it is good to be the king lmao. I'm so not surprised that he has sex with teenaged prostitutes. The man is a slimeball.

[Troff]

08:12 PM on 10/29/2010

I'm pretty sure his motto is vulgar enough not to get through moderation here.

[truthisneeded]

08:37 AM on 10/29/2010

Ok I see the further reports. It s pretty irrelevant if Berlusconi had sex with this child or not at this point? Why would he invite a child to his "parties". Maybe he should share all the details about his parties so we can be better informed but until then this sounds weird, given Berlusconi's history, and unacceptable.

"Berlusconi denies the affair, saying through a lawyer that, "alleged statements made by 'Ruby' in relation to events at the home of Berlusconi are completely unfounded," :

So Mr Berlusconi, that is fine, you should request a full expedited investigation so that you can clear your name.

[poster1122]

08:47 PM on 10/29/2010

It should be noted that the age of consent in Italy is 16 for a situation with an older man, according to wikipedia. So legally, the only question is whether there was a quid pro quo exchange of money for services. If, however, there was just an expectation that an older, rich guy would be generous to you but there wasn't an explicit requirement of the services, well, that's an arrangement that's existed since the dawn of man, I imagine.

[mazzetta]

10:22 AM on 10/30/2010

on the contrary, prostitution under 18 is illegal and is a crime for the clients as for anyone who easies it

[Tommaso Canziani]

07:13 AM on 10/29/2010

so, to brake it down, we have: abuse of power, gross incompetence from pretty much all the officials involved (but some had to think about not loosing their job) and the use of foreign politics for personal reasons. Am I forgetting something?...oh yes! Corruption...but that's last week's news, so not important...

[Marta23]

07:11 AM on 10/29/2010

Bizzarre that americans only report sexy scandals of our Prime Minister...the scandal came out thanks probably to all the news papers and television controlled by the Prime Minister himself just to distracte citizens from the importnat law he's trying to approve in the parliament: an act who will stop all the legal proceedings against him!! Why don't we talk about his proved connections with MAFIA, or how he obtained the funds who made him the first businessman of Italy...
Rudy it's just the last sordid episode of his sexual perversion...nothing new...look how he selected (female) ministers for his goverment: making them dance naked in his villa in sardinia..

Poor Italy...we should just feel embarassed and finally send him in his proper place: the jail!!

[Emanuele Serini]

07:32 AM on 10/29/2010

Corriere della Sera and Repubblica aren't Berlusconi's possessions, tho.

[Talossa]

08:13 AM on 10/29/2010

I hope Murdoch hasn't bought them up.

[Marta23]

09:53 AM on 10/29/2010

You're right. Berlusconi news papers and TV are facing now more important things: sexual crime in avetrana or are trying to play up scandal against every partner of his government coalition...

[truthisneeded]

08:39 AM on 10/29/2010

Thanks for bringing up the new law that Berlusconi is trying to pass to stop all legal proceedings against him. That is also unacceptable. Thanks so much. Favd and fanned.

[swimviking]

06:57 AM on 10/29/2010

There should be a psycological aptitude test for being a Prime Minister. Berlusconi would not pass. Therefore he would not be in the government, could not claim impunity from court appearances and persecution by the law in general. Since he is guilty of corruption (Mills case) he would therefore be in an Italian jail.
Case closed.

[Andrea Paventi]

10:54 AM on 10/29/2010

Unfortunately you are missing a very fundamental issue: italians like Berlusconi. Berlusconi embodies the traditional italian cultural dislike for rules and etics.
The first dislike is due to italian history: we have been always dominated by foregneirs, so we learned to percieve government as expression of an alien power rather than of ourself.
The second dislike is the result of catholic culture where is more important looking right than acting right.
Either he goes to jail or he doesn't it won't change italian culture.

[swimviking]

02:32 PM on 10/29/2010

I am Italian and I REFUSE to think that Berlusconi represents Italian culture.
Berlusconi is sick. He should be put in psychiatric hospital.

[alisonv]

04:50 AM on 10/29/2010

This article is missing a critical point. "Ruby" was picked up for theft. While she was at the police station, Berlusconi called and intervened for her and asked them to let her go for diplomatic reasons, identifying her as someone she is not. That is out and out abuse of power. That the 74 year-old Berlusconi pays young women for sex, as alleged, is disgusting. But his continued abuse of power in every way is ruining this country.

[settebello]

10:47 AM on 10/29/2010

Yes, exactly. La Repubblica reported yesterday that "Ruby" was arrested for having stolen
3.000 euros and a quantity of jewelry from the home of an acquaintance.A representative of the prime minister's office told the police holding her to let her go, as she was Hosni Mubarak's granddaughter. Although the office did not immediately know who Mubarak was, he eventually let "Ruby' go.

Thoroughly disgaceful.