Silvio Berlusconi loved Switzerland: where champagne and mafia money flowed

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Hardly any interview question aroused such enthusiasm in Silvio Berlusconi († 86). Yes, Switzerland is great, said the four-time Italian prime minister and multi-billionaire. “It’s my second home.” This was usually followed by the moving anecdote about his father Luigi (1908-1989). The banker fled to Switzerland for three years during World War II. Returning home in 1945, the then nine-year-old Silvio is said to have fallen into tears in his father’s arms at a border station on Lake Como. “That was the best day of my life,” said Berlusconi.

The “Cavaliere” thanked Switzerland with loyalty. Three of Silvio Berlusconi’s five children were born in Arlesheim BS. And in the Sant’Anna private clinic in Sorengo TI, five of his 17 grandchildren were born. For his beauty operations, Berlusconi always chose Switzerland, often the Ars Medica clinic in Gravesano TI. In 2006, Berlusconi also bought a beautiful villa in S-Chanf GR – in the name of his mother-in-law. Another popular party destination: the jet set mecca Sankt Moritz.

Berlusconi’s father worked for a mafia bank

But the “Cavaliere” was silent all his life about what is probably the greatest blessing the land has given him. Because in his “beautiful Switzerland” not only champagne, but, apparently, millions and millions of mafia money poured into the economic empire of the Milanese resident.

The breathtaking career of young Silvio Berlusconi began in the early 1960s. He has just completed his business law studies and would like to enter the construction industry. He dreams of gigantic satellite cities on the outskirts of his hometown. His father, now director of Banca Rasini, brings his son into contact with dubious financiers with Swiss bank accounts. What the public did not suspect at the time: the small, inconspicuous Milanese bank Rasini developed over the years into one of the most important mafia banks of the “Cosa Nostra”, where even super bosses such as Bernardo Provenzano († 83) and Totò Riina († 87) have their bills.

Investigations repeatedly led to Switzerland

In 1964, the young Berlusconi, who was actually penniless and inexperienced in business, built 18 high-rise buildings for 4,000 people in the agglomeration city of Brugherio in Milan. Berlusconi’s company Edilnord is mainly financed by the “Finanzierungsgesellschaft für Residenzen AG” in Lugano TI. Their representative, the Ticino lawyer Renzo Rezzonico, also provided the necessary funds to build “Milano 2” four years later. The satellite town for 10,000 people on 712,000 square meters in Segrate is funded by the Swiss «Aktiengesellschaft für Immobilienanlagen in Residenzzentren AG». Both companies are said to be owned by a bank in Tel Aviv that was used by Sicilian clans to launder their drug money at the time.

In the decades that followed, Italian investigations against Silvio Berlusconi repeatedly led to Switzerland. The federal prosecutor’s office provided legal assistance more than ten times, froze Tessin accounts, seized several million Swiss francs and helped put close associates of the great businessman behind bars for money laundering and fraud. In 2013, the “Cavaliere” was also found guilty. The accusation: Berlusconi bought film rights through a subsidiary at bargain prices and then resold them at inflated prices to his own media company Mediaset. He evaded taxes and parked black money. In Switzerland.

Source: Blick