Berlusconi masterminded tax evasion plan, Italian court says

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi closes his eyes in a gesture to supporters during a rally to protest his tax fraud conviction, outside his palace in central Rome August 4, 2013. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

ROME (Reuters) - Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was the mastermind behind a complex system of tax evasion by his holding company Fininvest, Italy's highest appeals court said on Thursday.

The Court of Cassation, which published the reasons for its decision earlier this month to uphold Berlusconi's conviction for tax fraud, pulled no punches in a 208-page document which dismissed all the media tycoon's arguments in his defence.