Fashion designers Dolce and Gabbana jailed for 20 months after being convicted for £850million tax evasion
- -Famous designers found guilty of failing to declare £850m in income tax
- -Italian court heard that they used a Luxembourg company to avoid tax
- -Judge sentenced both to 20 months in jail - suspended pending appeal
Dolce and Gabbana had initially been acquitted of tax fraud in 2011, when a different judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to indict them.
However, after an appeal to the country’s supreme court, prosecutors were able to re-open the case by dropping the fraud charges and pressing for convictions on tax evasion instead.
Dolce and Gabbana’s Milan office was last night still composing a statement for the media. When the charges were first made public, Mr Gabbana condemned the Italian tax authorities as ‘thieves’, and threatened to leave the country.
Tax evasion is thought to cost Italy €200billion (£170billion) a year. Several cases involving celebrities have led to out-of-court settlements; in 2000 opera singer Luciano Pavarotti paid 24billion lira (£8million) in back taxes, while MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi agreed to hand over €39million (£33million) in 2008.
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