The location of many legal showdowns and blockbuster trials over the years, the Four Courts will soon be the scene of proceedings between the billionaire scions of the late Silvio Berlusconi and the Central Bank of Ireland.
In his scandalous career as three-time celebrity prime minister of Italy, Berlusconi ran up €200 million in legal costs in more than 2,500 court appearances in 20 years over his business, tax and personal affairs.
Now two of his five children – eldest daughter Marina Elvira Berlusconi and son Pier Silvio Berlusconi – have started a High Court action in Dublin involving the Central Bank.
The proceedings centre on the €13.8 billion Italian lender Banca Mediolanum, in which the Berlusconi family investment group is a big shareholder. Mediolanum’s Irish fund management arm is regulated by the Central Bank and responsible for investments worth about €80 billion.
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The children of Berlusconi’s first marriage, Marina and Pier Silvio were the biggest beneficiaries when his €6 billion estate was divided among his children, his brother and a business associate who was imprisoned for mafia links.
Berlusconi was 86 when he died in June 2023. His partner Marta Fascina, 53 years his junior, received €100 million.
Mediolanum agreements were updated after his death, leaving Berlusconi family investment group Fininvest with a 30.03 per cent stake in the bank. The family of Mediolanum’s late founder, Ennio Dorris, holds 40.21 per cent of the institution.
“It is not a ‘case’ against the Central Bank of Ireland,” said Furio Pietribiasi, managing director of Mediolanum’s fund business in Dublin.
Pietribiasi described the proceedings as a technical regulatory application after the succession of Marina and Pier Silvio Berlusconi to the “dominant influence” in Fininvest. This has already been approved by the European Central Bank and national central banks in Italy, Spain and Ireland, he added.
“The application is of a technical nature only and it is not anticipated that the Central Bank will be involved in the application to the High Court.”
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Mediolanum founder Dorris, a rags-to-riches billionaire who died five years ago, was a close friend of Silvio Berlusconi, the media mogul turned populist politician.
Still Italy’s longest-serving premier of the postwar era, Berlusconi’s political grip was strong enough to withstand frequent bouts of uproar over his personal behaviour.
He was once convicted of paying a juvenile sex worker and misusing his official position to try to cover up the liaison. He was acquitted on appeal.
Forbes magazine estimates the fortune of Marina Berlusconi, chairman of the Fininvest board, is valued in the region of €2.7 billion. Pier Silvio Berlusconi, a director on the board, is estimated to have a similar fortune.
There was no Central Bank comment.
