PROSECUTORS IN ROME have launched an investigation against Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for tax evasion linked to his Mediaset media empire.

The Roman investigation is in relation to tax declarations for 2003 and 2004 – and is part of an wider inquiry into Mediaset’s tax affairs headed by prosecutors in Milan.

The allegations being investigated relate to charges of false accounting in the acquisition of television rights by Mediaset, which allegedly allowed the company to pay less tax and reduce its revenues.

Berlusconi, the deputy chairman of Mediaset Piersilvio (Berlusconi’s son), and other senior managers have been placed under investigation.

Berlusconi founded Mediaset in the 1970s; the company now controls Italy’s leading three privately-owned national television channels.

Mediaset has called the allegations “absurd” and Berlusconi has said that the allegations are politically motivated.

Mediaset chairman Fedele Confalonieri, was quoted by Mediaset’s news division as saying:

Every now and then we are put under investigation, we get dragged into things as usual.

However Antonio Di Pietro of the Italy of Values party, one of Berlusconi most outspoken critics, said:

Berlusconi is constantly under investigation because he never goes on trial.