Grubstakers - Episode 50: Silvio Berlusconi

Episode Date: January 23, 2019

Our 50th episode is a real car bomb under a mafia prosecutor's vehicle. We're discussing the life and times of billionaire former Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi. Hear all about how he launched a political career for the inspiring reason of keeping himself out of prison and how his only crime was party rocking too hard. Mafia money, corruption, a fascist revival, bunga bunga: it's all here on Grubstakers.

Because of my success in the private sector, I had the chance to run America's largest city for 12 years. I taught those kids lessons on product development and marketing, and they taught me what it was like growing up feeling targeted for your race and that's just that's just not true you know i love having the support of real billionaires um hello welcome back to grubstakers the podcast about billionaires i'm sean p mccarthy here i'm joined as always by my friends yogi pollywall steve jeffries andy palmer and uh this week we are taking a look at silvio berlusconi let me tell you i am the best prime minister italy has ever had

for some reason people compare this guy to donald trump that music in the background sound like drake's well he also observes the same age of consent that drake does oh this guy texts millie bobby brown every day yeah so uh silvio berlusconi is a billionaire according to forbes he's as of this moment worth about 6.6 billion u.s dollars uh he's italy's longest serving prime minister uh since world War II. He's the longest serving guy in power in Italy since the guy with the first name Benito. What did that guy do? He must have been really good. Seems like long-term prime ministers are really good in Italy.

They also both do bonga bonga parties. seems to be the key to maintaining power in italian government but so silvio berlusconi is he was the prime minister of italy uh for several months in 1994 then he was in power from 2001 to 2006 then he was in power from 2008 to 2011 and then he was brought down by bunga bunga but he's still a political force force in Italy. And he's actually just a few days ago, before we started recording this, he announced he's going to run for the European Parliament in Italy. And he's just kind of trying to leverage. He's not necessarily able to return to the prime ministership, but he's trying to leverage his power to protect his business interests

and all that. Well, he wasn't really brought down by Bunga Bunga, was he? They got him on an Al Capone thing. He eventually, yes, they got him on taxes, but his government was deposed in the aftermath of Bunga Bunga after some European

white scheming that involved his president and all this stuff. Now, for the audience, Bunga Bunga is the mask from Crash Bandicoot. That's what we're talking about. I can give you an explanation of Bunga Bunga is the mask from Crash Bandicoot. That's what we're talking about. I can give you an explanation of Bunga Bunga in Berlusconi's own words. Yeah, sure. Okay, this is from the Netflix doc My Way, which I guess it's named after Frank Sinatra's song,

which if you ask me, a little too whoppish. Berlusconi's actually the less fascist between the two of them. All right, here is Berlusconi is actually the less fascist between the two of them alright here is Berlusconi's explanation I'll be reading the subtitles Bunga Bunga is a story which comes from a real event Gaddafi always wanted me to come to the ceremony of the king of kings he's good friends with Gaddafi

one year I couldn't go because I had a very important commitment. So he said to me, send me two of your guys. So I chose two delegates, and I sent them to him. And here's where the story begins. These guys are taken by the only revolutionary tribe there is. They're taken to this village, tied to a stake, and the people start doing a tribal dance around them with guttural shouting, and the only word they could understand was

bunga bunga bunga bunga. Then the dance finishes, and the witch doctor goes over To Susito One of the two and he says You die or bunga bunga Like anyone would have done Between dying and bunga bunga He says bunga bunga

And all the warriors At the village screw him Then the witch doctor Goes up to the other one To Bodhi and he says And all the warriors of the village screw him. Then the witch doctor goes up to the other one, to Bodhi, and he says to him, you, die or bunga bunga? And Bodhi, having seen what has happened to Sekito, says, die. Ah, fine, you can die, but first a bit of bunga bunga. That, of course, resulted in a famous diplomatic incident where an italian deputy minister was fucked to death in libya

and and that is why uh burlesconi and this is true was the biggest opponent in europe of uh military intervention to depose gaddafi because he knew what would happen if the revolutionaries took over libya it's um but yeah so Berlusconi like and Bunga Bunga is one of Italy's main exports a lot of people observe he's like uh Berlusconi he talks he tells a lot of street jokes you know whenever he gets the mic at something he yeah like so I was the other joke from this book being Berlusconi is apparently Berlusconi would tell the joke that when Italian women are polled would they have sex with Berlusconi 30% of them say yes and then the other 70% say what again so you know he's and again the Donald Trump comparison is the the primary thing we want to start with here because you know, he's and again, the Donald Trump comparison is the primary thing we want to start with here, because, you know, in addition to like, let's say, weaponizing resentment against political correctness and, you know, the backlash and that kind of stuff.

Berlusconi also constantly lies. Yeah. You know, what's funny about this story is like clearly there's a real story behind like Bunga Bunga. But he tells this he says it's a real story behind Bunga Bunga, but he tells this. He says it's a true story. He keeps a straight face through the whole thing, which is a good way to tell a joke, but he's very clearly just using the joke as kind of a misdirect from the real story. You can see where he departs from reality, but he gives no indication other than like laughing at the end of it that it's just completely like completely made up like he just he's able to

just make stuff up with a straight face right it's like when people run bits while they're talking to you and you're like i mean you probably workshopped that a couple of times yeah yeah the other stuff not that good yeah he was a cruise singer too like in his 20s so this is like if a cruise comic took power well trump is like trump came to power because he was basically the road comic president who would just workshop policy in front of a crowd and see what like the hooting idiots would hoot the most for and that shaped his like his campaign uh speech but like, so Berlusconi is basically... As I see him, he's Trump without the clear dementia. He's aware of what he is,

but he's still completely fucked up. Sure. It is interesting how yes and, in the case of of Donald Trump was definitely responsible for creating an ethnic cleansing. You know, these rules can be abused. But so one other quote from this this being Berlusconi book in 2006 explaining why Italians ought to reelect him after five years of cr crass and inept leadership Prime Minister Berlusconi said quote I am the Jesus Christ of politics. I sacrifice myself for everyone and it's a

It's it's another it's another thing where Berlusconi, you know when he got into politics 1994 He was already a billionaire and it was the same kind of refrain that you heard with both Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg, which was, oh, these guys are billionaires, so they'll be honest in office because they don't need any money, whereas other politicians are corruptible. And it's funny how- Just like Michael Bloomberg and Donald Trump, he proved it. Yes. That's right.

That billionaires are very honest in office and not completely corrupt. No, God no. Why would they be? It's like these people who are already hoarders for money, for some reason, do not cease that deep psychological sickness when they assume political office. But yeah, so like, you know, and the thing about Berlusconi's corruption

is this podcast be about an hour. We don't have time to get to all of it. Berlusconi has been on over 60 trials for corruption, bribery, association with the mafia, underage prostitution. Wow, who's his lawyer? Johnny Cochran?

So basically his political career was launched in order to keep himself out of prison. I'm paraphrasing. He said this to the editor of one of his newspapers that, to be honest, I ran for the office because if I didn't, I would end up in prison and then in debt. So, you know, and we'll kind of go through the mechanism of how they manipulated the law once they were actually in power in order to protect himself and protect his business empire. His holding company is called FinInvest.

It's a holding company for his media and real estate empire. He originally got rich through real estate. Yeah, let's start from the beginning. He came from relatively humble beginnings. That's another departure from Trump, is that he at least knows Right from wrong. Well, not necessarily that. But he knows

what it is like to want or to not be incredibly rich. Yeah, so Silvio Berlusconi is born in 1936 in Milan. At the age of six, he's evacuated with his family to the countryside because, of course, of World War II, the Allies are carpet bombing Milan.

Oh, and by the way, fun little tidbit from the documentary is that he's walking the interviewer and host of the documentary around his house, and one thing he shows him is uh he he we'll we'll talk about later how he worked his way into tv but he points to uh tv and he says uh this is a gift from me from queen elizabeth the second it's a tv from 1936 the year i was born and like i'm sure someone around queen elizabeth the second uh kind of worked that out. But I'm sure to her, she was like, 1936. Oh, I remember TV in 1936. I saw a lot of Italian leaders in 1936 on TV when she was like 10.

But yes, and you know, like, look, there's, say what you will about terror bombing civilian populations, but can you imagine how many ped look, there's, say what you will about terror bombing civilian populations, but can you imagine how many pedophiles there would be in Italy had the Allies not done it? I guess we should say every time you do ironic racism against Italians on this episode, you have to put a dollar into the ironic racism against Italians jar. Oh, it's ironic? And we'll use it to fund...

We'll use it to fund an organization that prosecutes Italians. The anti-mafia group. Con Edison? Sorry, let's continue. The mob is in utilities in New York. Well, somebody just got their meter

reading changed. So, Berlusconi, again, so he's evacuated to the countryside. Relatively poor family. His father does fight for the Italian army in World War II. Thank you for your service. But, so basically

his father... And he survived, which means he was one of the smart italians who just immediately surrendered to the allies uh so you guys sound like like 19th century racists from from the u.s that's what living in new york does to you like i think so you're like well these are the smart italians no i mean that was just the case like if you were fighting for italy in world war ii like you were dumb if you actually fought like italians were known to uh surrender very quickly because they all knew that mussolini was a dipshit so they were just like you know what my life will improve vastly if i just put my hands up. The Americans don't do as many war crimes as the other people.

So, yeah. Tell that to Rocky. But so... I don't know. Okay. I'm very tired. I apologize. Oh, yeah.

Yogi just got engaged. Oh, yeah. Congratulations, Yogi. Let's move on. This podcast is not about unions. So, Silvio Berlusconi's dad comes back from the war. His parents send him to like a strict Catholic boarding school. Apparently there, according to the book being Berlusconi,

that might be where Silvio Berlusconi learned kind of his lifelong anti-communist rhetoric. He went to this, you know, strict Catholic boarding school. Apparently there he would do homework for other classmates for money, you know? So this is like early businessman operations. Oh, and also apparently he said that he told the interviewer he was so charismatic that people in his family said, you could be a cardinal. And then when he told the interviewer this, they both laughed. And I assume it's because of all the rape charges

against Berlusconi. He's come a long way since running a Kumon in the countryside. So his father was named Luigi and it will cost you a dollar if you want to say anything about that. But his father came back from the war, and he got a job with a bank. And his father's bank... Was he running it with his brother Waluigi?

I'm sorry, his cousin. There was a famous incident where Koopas did a run on the bank like hundreds of them trying to withdraw their money all at once and he had to shoot fireballs at them to keep them out his father's bank uh was interesting in that uh his father's bank was called banca rossini his father works at this bank and banca rossini was uh founded by a banker who uh was heavily connected to the sicilian mafia so um basically according to a prosecutor uh banca rossini where burlesconi's father worked, was, quote, the mafia's treasure chest in Milan. Berlusconi flatly denies that any mafia money helped him to get a start in real estate. So Banca Rossini, this is from the book Being Berlusconi, was founded by Mikel Sindona.

I do it every episode. Who is a banker with connections to Sicilian mafia prosecutors. Michael Sindona. I do it every episode. Who is a banker with connections to Sicilian mafia prosecutors. Prosecutor suspects the mafia invested in Milan through Berlusconi, basically. And we'll get to that in one second. Sean. Yes. Sean.

Yes. Sean. Mm-hmm. Yes. There's no such thing as a mafia. Sean yes the the point that I was making here is like the question of where Berlusconi got his startup capital because we mentioned he was born relatively lower middle class

it comes from this thing of ours Berlusconi flatly denies that any mafia money helped him to get his relatively lower middle class. It comes from this thing of ours. Berlusconi flatly denies that any mafia money helped him to get a start in real estate. Yes. But we are jumping ahead just really quickly. What Berlusconi was doing before is he actually, he graduates, in his 20s,

he works as a singer on cruise ships in the Mediterranean. He briefly works at a Paris cabaret and actually you know maybe we'll put it in at the end of the episode Berlusconi does have a good singing voice oh so he will regularly regale people at political events with his like singing you know it's a regular Lady Gaga right so and his his origin story from the Paris cabaret is such like uh just like weird daddy issues thing where his his dad finally came to see him perform at the paris cabaret and uh he performed and you know he was like i've got to do great for my father and then he's in his dressing room backstage and his father comes in uh crosses

his arms and says do you want to sing for the rest of your life? And Silvio immediately like packs his stuff and goes back to Milan to like live with his dad and work in real estate. That's how mafia works. But father, where else will I find underage women? Son, let me tell you about politics. So Berlusconi,i yes like that's the story he tells in documentaries his father sees him at the paris cabaret and then he abandons his original dream of being a singer he goes to the university of milan he graduates law in 1961 with top honors

according to the book being burlesconi, his thesis on the contractual aspects of advertising, even won an award from a local advertising agency. But so he graduates law in 1961. And then at this time, you know, it's post-war, there's an economic boom in Milan. So he gets into real estate at the age of 25. Berlusconi flatly denies any mafia money, helped him to get a start in real estate. So from the book Being Berlusconi, his first real estate deal, again he's 25 years old, he manages to convince the head of his father's bank, which has no mafia ties, to guarantee the

loan needed to build his first apartments in Milan. His famous powers of persuasion were in evidence when he sold the first of these properties to one of his lifelong friends' grandmother. Oh, and his story for selling that, it might be true or it might be a gag he saw from the film adaptation of McHale's Navy, where he says he's painting the outside of this shack or whatever he's selling. And a wealthy family comes and says, oh, we're looking for a place for our daughter. Is this for sale?

And he doesn't want them to think that he's the administrator who's painting it. So he says, oh, yes, one moment. I'll go get the boss. Oh, wow. And he goes into the building, puts on a suit, or in his words, a tie, comes back out and says,

yes, I'm here to show you around. Then he says, they said that, oh, you look just like the other guy. And he goes, oh, yes, that was my cousin, who is kind of slow-witted. But so basically this is his like first uh apartment deal um at the age of 25 but then he he strikes out on like a much more ambitious thing that apparently like not even the the head of his bank could afford to lend him the money for

so again there have been heavy accusations about mafia involvement. Berlusconi, any mafia money helps him to get a start in real estate. What a speaking voice. I know. Very beautiful. Yeah. But so the next thing he does after this first one is it's a complex for several thousand people. He starts setting up these gated communities. He does like three of them, I believe.

The first one's Milano, uh, one, and this is a, like a complex just outside Milan for like several thousand people. Um, and, uh, basically, you know, you're setting up gated communities, uh, for Italians and, and just quoting from the book being Berlusconi, additional funds flowed in to, um, uh, this company that Berlusconi founded to base the venture. They flowed in from a Swiss company. This firm's real proprietors have never been identified. What? And it was at this point that whispers began, rumors concerning the origins of Berlusconi's investments.

When large, opaque cash flows are involved in Italy, the word mafia inevitably surfaces. Berlusconi flatly denies that any mafia money helps him to get a start in real estate. But so this is in the mid-60s. This is his first gated community. Within five years, he had... Basically invented Stuyvesant town.

Within five years, he had found owners for a thousand new homes. No sentence worse than this was his first gated community. He becomes a multimillionaire in the 70s. This is his first gated community. He becomes a multimillionaire in the 70s. This is his second gated community. It's called Milano 2. This is a gated community for 10,000 people.

I thought his first one was Milano 2, and then the second one was Milano 3. Well, that wouldn't make any sense. Does he want people to think he has more gated communities than he actually does? Yeah, but you can't say Milano 1 because there's already a Milano. There's the city of Milano. Milano 1? Yeah, but you can't say Milan 1 because there's already a Milan. I mean, there's the city of Milan. Milano 1? Yeah, and so he named his first one Milano 2, and then I assume the third one Milano 3,

or he just had two Milano 2s. This right here, this is Milan 30. So maybe I'm wrong about the name, but basically he does have kind of a shittier gated community before Milano 2. And so the big irony here, and I can kind of skip ahead to it. So he sells thisier gated community before milano 2 and so the big irony here and i can kind of skip ahead to it so he sells this first gated community he convinces the people to move out there but then milano 2 is like much more fancy much more luxury but he's having trouble selling it because aircraft

flight routes go right over it so he bribes the italian uh parliamentarians in order to change aircraft flight routes and ends up putting them over his first gated community. What a fucking snake. But so Milano 2 is what makes him a multimillionaire. This is in the early 70s. Milano 2, it's a gated community for about 10,000 people. It has its own shops schools a church a cinema central plaza artificial lake sounds nice and also it's important in the 70s Italy is like beset by

terrorism mafia kidnappings you know the red guards in Italy or is it red brigades I don't remember but but there's both like fascist and communists are kidnapping people murdering politicians the mafia is kidnapping wealthy people and holding them ransom so a lot of people who like have a bit of disposable income want to get out of the city and like live in such a gated community so this is an opportune time for him also in the 70s it was very important to have living arrangements that were very accommodating to key parties, lots of glass bowls. Wait, so in theory, this guy made money or got money from the mob

to make gated communities, and then the mob made the regular communities too unsafe? He only flatly helped them to get it started. But then the mob made it so that the regular communities were too dangerous because of them, and so they moved to his communities? It was an interesting little... Allegedly. Allegedly, sure.

You scratch my back, I scratch yours kind of situation, yeah. But so, again, from the book Being Berlusconi, Bank of Italy inspectors tried to look into where the money for Milano 2 came from. They were intrigued by the tsunami of cash flowing into it. They discovered labyrinthine account arrangements in various companies within companies that resembled a series of rushing nesting dolls. The economist noted that Berlusconi's name was, quote, nowhere to be seen in the company filings of the main developer or in the filings of the company group overseeing the commercial part of it so it was just like all these kind of like offshore accounts where you have no idea what um what's going on but so uh

just to kind of like give you a bit more context on the mafia thing so in 1974 and 75 he hires a guy named vittorio uh mangano in 1974 and 75 uh burlesconi hires this guy who's a convicted mafia hitman and drug dealer in the 70s uh burlesconi hires him as an estate manager basically you know to manage uh his his mansion but people suspect it's like partly mafia protection money partly to like protect him from kidnapping but prosecutors believe this guy of Vittorio Mangano was a primary link between mafia and businessmen connected to the mafia and basically he was doing throughout the 70s large-scale heroin shipments and then he was laundering the money, the cash,

through the Milan financial community. And so basically what's alleged by prosecutors, and then this is from the book being Berlusconi, is that in 1974 there was a meeting between Berlusconi, several Cosa Nostra associate, and a high-ranking boss, Stefano Bontatti, which was an account, or this was organized by one of Stefano Rigatoni.

One of Berlusconi's like lifelong friends and businessmen was also like connected to the mob and like set up this meeting. And according to the being Berlusconi at this meeting, a deal was struck. Berlusconi received protection from other mafia clans, plus backing for his construction business. and according to the being burlesque only at this meeting a deal was struck burlesque only received protection from other mafia clans plus backing for his construction business this is 1974 and protection of broadcasting plans in Sicily in return for large amounts of cash but in addition it seems likely that Cosa Nostra benefited by having somewhere to launder its

dirty money while reaping its returns as a secret shareholder. Berlusconi flatly denies that any mafia money helped him to get a start in real estate. Again, from the book, one mafia informer said that from 1978 onwards, Berlusconi's FinInvest holding group paid some $130,000 a year in protection money to keep its TV transmitters in Sicily operational. Another high-profile informant claimed that Berlusconi poured as much as 600 million lira, about 400,000 US dollars, a year into Cosa Nostra's coffers, which was tied to his business activities in Sicily. Berlusconi flatly denies that any mafia money helped him to get a start in real estate.

Well, we've heard Berlusconi's take on this. But yes, so... Is that his lawyer? That is the man who brilliantly did the documentary where he basically sucked off Berlusconi for 14 months. Nice. And then...

And he would just ask Berlusconi like pretty much wrote the book yeah and then and then he uh when they edited it together they put like the most incriminating parts in it and uh one other thing about um burlesconi's political career and the ties there uh the suspicion was and still is uh his he's always polled extremely well in key parts of the italian south so the suspicion wasn't is that mafia clans trade blocks of votes for political favors with him uh you know in parts of sicily and uh calabria but anyway so regardless of where the money came from it's from this real estate holdings that he's able to really build himself up into a... Mogul.

A media mogul, yes. And so he sets up in 1979, he sets up his first TV company. But Italian media law at this time is essentially that there can be no private national TV broadcasters. There's a couple different state channels, which are the national channels, but private individuals are allowed to buy local channels. So Berlusconi's insight is essentially- In his words, the national television was in the pocket of big government. Berlusconi, his way around this is essentially he starts buying up local stations and then he has them show the exact same programs, but a few seconds apart.

So, you know, this is his way is essentially he de facto creates national private TV network. He buys the TV. Just like reverse engineered the network. Yes. He buys the TV rights to the American show Dallas in 1978.

He buys Dynasty in 1981. So he kind of like his strategy is he shows, you know, reruns of popular American shows. But he also shows, you know, scantily clad women and trashy TV. And he also. Oh, who I shot a J.R. He also kind of cut out the ad agencies and went directly to the businesses to get them to advertise. Apparently, like state TV was was pretty stogie about like the kind of advertisements they would show. Whereas he was like much more unscrupulous. You know, he would show advertising for anything. And, um, and so his, his formula for success

works to the point that it, by 1984, he's able to buy out the two chief rivals for national television because two other people thought of this idea. He buys them out by 84. So essentially by 84, there are three private national networks. He controls all of them. And there are three private national networks he controls all of them and there are three major state networks which he will soon be elected and controlled um but so the his power is briefly threatened in 1984 because again there is this law that's very clearly being broken by him so in 1984 the government briefly shuts down his TV stations because they are clearly violating the law against national private broadcasting. But Berlusconi is able to bribe the then, quote, socialist prime minister, a guy named Craxi. And Craxi

was a regular dinner guest of Berlusconi by the late 1970s. In uh october 20 1984 after the government shuts down uh burlesconi's tv station craxi calls an emergency meeting and produce yeah no uh tankies tell us again why uh ideally socialism is about a centralized powerful government and that that's the best road to uh redistributive policies uh so craxi he calls this emergency meeting that, quoting from being Berlusconi, these emergency decrees, they skirt the need for parliamentary scrutiny and thus avoid the obvious inconvenience associated with the democratic process. Basically, the Craxi degree allowed national commercial TV broadcasts to resume and Berlusconi's revenue to keep pouring in.

And it's supposed to only last six months, but then if the parliament doesn't do anything, it just kind of de facto stays going. So basically, this Prime Minister Craxi would eventually be convicted and have to flee the country because of accepting a bribe from Berlusconi. But Berlusconi bribes him. He does an emergency decree to keep Berlusconi's stations on the air. And then Berlusconi is able to keep his cash cow going. And that kind of continues throughout the 80s. Berlusconi, he buys the company that controls a news magazine called Panorama. And in this case, Berlusconi's lawyer would actually be convicted of bribing the judiciary in order to make this go through, like some other mogul was originally buying this company. And then Berlusconi, his lawyer bribed the judges hearing the case in Rome. And apparently he bribed them so effectively that not only did they give Berlusconi this

company he's trying to buy, but the judges give him two of the companies controlled by this mogul. Oh my God. Which is completely nonsensical. And then Berlusconi is actually encouraged by his political allies to give them back. But so basically, by 1989, Berlusconi has really consolidated his media holdings. Again, so like his lawyer was bribing the Roman judiciary. Again, like his lawyer would be convicted of this at a later date. But the important thing is that, according from the book, Berlusconi, by 1989, had three of the six major national TV channels.

The other three are all government run. He had a newspaper, an important news magazine, and important news magazines, and he also controlled 60% of Italy's TV advertising market. And so in 1989, the government again tries to pass a law

regulating media ownership. The idea is that lots of different Berlesconi opponents are like he shouldn't have three of the tv stations he should have to sell two of them or whatever so it falls to um this uh republican party member in italy uh named oscar mami mami oscar mami uh he's supposed to write this TV regulation law and again quoting from B.A. Berlusconi jaws dropped when the proposals finally

emerged the limit on the number of TV channels that could be controlled by one individual was three the number Berlusconi already had the mogul would have the law did require him to relinquish his national newspaper,

which he did by handing it over to his brother. And then prosecuted from being Berlusconi, prosecutors later... That's the spicy meat pie. He didn't hand it over to himself in a suit. With an even more guinea mustache. It's my brother Mario Thank you You know what the Italian public said when they heard that

He had to Hand it over to a larger version of himself With some sort of raccoon tail. So prosecutors from the book, prosecutors later discovered that the man who drafted the legislation received a payment of $500,000 U.S. dollars from Berlusconi's Fininvest holding company.

He maintained that it was a consulting fee. Prosecutors also investigated the claim that there was a much bigger payment of about $8.3 million originating from Finnavest and given to the political party of the man who drafted the legislation. But basically, this court was tried in Rome, and because Berlusconi's lawyer had been bribing the Roman judiciary. No influential persons in this were ever put in court. But so basically, this is how Berlusconi, you know, fights off challenges to his media empire. But this is important because essentially throughout the 80s, you know, he has a lot of political friends.

He's paying bribes, but there are various people putting him in his sights. And so what happens in Italy is from 1992 to 1994, there's what's called Bribesville. And Bribesville is a, basically it's a scandal that discredits the entire Italian political establishment, like both the nominally socialist and the center-right parties and stuff. They're all caught up taking money, including, you know, prime minister, at this point, former prime minister Craxi is, you know, convicted of bribes and all these other magistrates. It's kind of like what happened in Brazil recently with Operation Car Wash, where it essentially showed that every prominent member of the mainstream political establishment on both sides was taking kickbacks, you like any construction project you'd have to

like skim off a little to pay bribes to the politicians and the magistrates you know aggressively prosecuted all of these different political figures from 92 to 94 and Berlusconi has to enter politics at this point because essentially all of the politicians who'd been protecting his media empire were completely discredited and although we were left were like Maoists. Yes. So basically, Berlusconi was very worried about a leftist or, you know, straight up communist government coming to power and seizing his TV stations or making him sell them off or whatever have you. So this is what leads Berlusconi to enter the political fray in 1994, this complete

discrediting of basically all of the political parties that had protected him up until then. And I'm sure there were no larger interests propping him up so that maybe there would be a charismatic figure in place to stop a left-wing government from having control of Italian politics. I'm glad to see that, Andy. Well, actually... Just guessing.

If you want to get into some conspiracy stuff, Berlusconi is also a member of the Propaganda II Masons. The P2 Masons are kind of a secret anti-communist society that's in Italy. And basically, P2, from the book being burlesconi i know who they are they hit the national treasure uh from the book uh p2 stated aim was to save the country from the italian communist party by infiltrating trade unions political parties and the media um basically burlesconi joins it in, I believe, 1978 or 1977.

The book speculates that he probably just joined it. Oh, he joins in 1978. The book speculates that Berlusconi probably just joined this in order to network, get more political connections for his business empire, get more clients for his business. But a funny story about P2 is they buy some like nominally center-right journal when it has Italian political paper when it has financial troubles and then suddenly it starts being like militantly and violently anti-communist but also like weird inexplicable news stories start

appearing that people believe are coded messages to cia agents and other intelligence and another thing like in um in 1978 in which a christian democrat ex-premier was held hostage by the red brigade of the terrorists i mentioned earlier weird how burlesconi fell out of power right after he opposed the uhosition of Gaddafi. One editorial in the formerly moderate newspaper called for democratic rights to be suspended and suspected leftist sympathizers to be rounded up

in 1978. So, you know, it's like, it's one of those things where Berlusconi paid the 100,000 lire membership fee and joined in 1978. He never really left. And we don't know, you know, like there's a lot of conspiracy about if this influenced him at all. The book speculates again that he was just doing this for networking.

But he was clearly involved in a secretive anti-communist society with links to the CIA and other intelligence agencies. Sure, Eichmann joined a couple groups out of networking. He went in there and was just fueling their fevered dreams for like a fascist takeover um but so while working on his business plan i mean it seems like the difference between him and eichmann in this case is there wasn't a friend who said um actually the masons aren't very good i've got this different group you might want to join is this really cool guy named scott you'll meet him but so burlesconi he starts up his political party in 1994 like just i think two months before the election and oh i forgot to mention in 1986 i believe he buys ac milan the football club and this actually improves his image with the public a lot

because they start winning championships, and Berlusconi is the guy who is behind AC Milan. All the teams they start playing start to have broken kneecaps. Easier to win when the opposite team doesn't have kneecaps. But this improves his public profile because people associate with him with the guy who made AC Milan win, and this kind of nonsense and this is important for a long time before this um this uh guy edisoni uh had a team called dc milan

and he proved that ac milan was actually quite dangerous by uh electrocuting elephants to death on the field before each game um but so uh But so... Did Edisoni steal his team from an Italian who is forgotten by history? So importantly, the slogan for AC Milan, the soccer club, is Forza Milan. So Berlusconi... Which means, go Milan!za Milan so Berlusconi which means go Milan

and Berlusconi just takes that and he starts a political party go Italy Forza Italy is the name of his party Forza Italia if you're wondering what kind of intelligence level of voter base he sought out

he named his political party Go Italy! Alright, put a dollar in the ironic anti-Italian racism jar. So basically according to the book Being Berlusconi, by 1992 one of his top lieutenants had already

dispatched. Not even anti-Italian I'm just saying he's going for the oinking masses like our president. He dispatched... Oinking, Andy? I think you put two dollars in there. Basically, they fanned out... Put one euro in there. They fanned out throughout the country. What, like a dollar fifteen?

Oh, they're going down. Well, we're not to the euro yet, so put a couple of the euro in there. We're not there yet. So, by 1992, they'd already fanned out around the country, and they started to find parliamentary candidates to represent the Forza Italia line, and they found about 600 or so people.

Nearly all were from business, and many had direct or indirect links to Fininvest, which is, of course, Berlusconi's holding company. So obviously, if these people have financial interest in protecting his business you know uh and so just one interesting thing from the book all the candidates were drilled on the importance of tidy appearance fresh breath and the need to avoid sweaty palms at all costs tips right out of burlesconi's salesman's handbook um and so you know and basically they just launched

this uh again if you're familiar with trump'll recognize it, campaign where they're promising tax cuts without having to cut spending. Deal making. Exactly. And Berlusconi, he launches this new political party, which gets, I think, 20 some percent of the vote. But he forms a coalition with two groups, the Northern which is kind of like a um a political party that's very anti-rome that kind of wants to protect the north of italy they're pretty right wing but the other one is a lanza national nazional um and that's a neo-fascist party which um the leader of it did not see that coming the leader of it in 1994 stated that uh benito mussolini was quote

the greatest statesman of the century um and yeah so berlusconi promises 1 million new jobs lower taxes without cuts to public service and then just like one other interesting thing from the book here is uh subsequent research showed that the number of hours a person spent uh viewing berlusconi's TV channels correlated with the likelihood that they would vote for him. The trend was particularly pronounced among women. 75% of female ex-Christian Democrat voters who watch more than four hours a day of media set Berlusconi's company, of their television, put their vote to Berlusconi, whereas only 40% of those who watched less

than four hours a day voted for him. So, you know, he's able to exploit the moment of frustration with the establishment because of the corruption and exploit the fact that he's controlling half of the media and all of the private national media in Italy to shoot himself into power. And so basically, 1994, he gets into power for the first time and starts protecting himself. He puts a lot of his lawyers into power. He makes his tax lawyer finance minister, who in turn gives a $130 million tax break to Finnavest, his company. He makes his other lawyer who was

doing the bribes to the roman judiciary he makes him defense minister um they uh they passed an infamous degree decree called the that was dubbed the save a thief law which prevents the judiciary from issuing arrest warrants for most crimes related to political corruption and fraud and they did it they tried to sneak it out under cover of the final rounds of the World Cup. But Brazil beat Italy in this 1994 final. So public attention refocused on his brazen attempt to get his friends out of jail. And about 2,764 suspects walked out of prison overnight.

And then he was forced to rescind this. But again, it's kind of like an ongoing thing with Berlusconi's taking power is that he keeps coming in and passing all these laws to protect himself and his associates from criminal liability. And then because of the way Italian law is structured, basically the statute of limitations

for a crime keeps ticking even after somebody's been charged with it oh really so if they can just change the law to like add all these extra steps eventually the statute of limitations will expire right and this is how burlesconi got off on a lot of stuff oh yeah but uh the the the But the government falls by essentially Christmas Day 1994. The Northern League, their other partners kind of pull out after the leader describes Berlusconi as a mafioso. And the league's ministers quit the cabinet and Berlusconi resigns on December 21, 1994. And that's about the end of his first government but so um you know so there's a lot of allegations going around in 1994 that kind of force him out of government which is like he's bribing uh finance police to his company is

bribing finance police to let them do tax fraud um but in 1998 actually after he leaves government he is found guilty of having illegally funded a political party. This is Craxi's Socialist Party way back in the 80s. He gets two years and four months. He's sentenced, but he has the right to two appeals, and the incarceration is suspended for those appeals. And because the statute of limitations keeps running throughout these two appeals, he's actually able to get the statute of limitations to expire in the course of the two uh two appeals uh all the way to the supreme court the statute of limitation expires before it gets there so this is how burlesconi gets out of jail

in this particular case in 1998 and um it's interesting where essentially throughout the 90s the the government that replaces him in 1994 is kind of corrupt too, but they're not really interested in making an enemy out of him because, again, he still has all this media control. He's all this financial power. And it's essentially the people get sick of the government and the usual austerity and stuff and they return him to power in 1998 good yeah he's kind of sustained in a way by just milquetoast neoliberalism in between his stints as in power right and so he he returns to power in 2001 for the first time and he does a contract with italians which he steals

from newt gingrich's contract with america and uh basically it's five pledges tax cuts reduction in crime rise in the state pension having unemployment and a massive boost in the number of public works extra spicy meatballs he said if he doesn't meet at least four of the five pledges he would never again run for parliament but according to that according to one academic he't meet at least four of the five pledges, he would never again run for parliament. But according to one academic, he failed on at least four of the five pledges. And so he comes back in 2001. He does Amnesty for tax dodgers right away.

Which allows media set, again, his TV company. He's forgiving, something that Jesus did. That's right, that's right. It allows media set to avoid paying 120 million euros it owed the Italian state for overseas slush funds. He started putting his lawyers into key ministerial posts while they were busy representing him in court so they would fly out to protect him in court cases and then they would fly back to rome and write laws to protect him like um just one such example was the 2002 kirami law which was named after the

guy who came up with it basically suspects who thought a particular court was biased against them would be allowed to request the trial elsewhere and as we mentioned because the statute of limitation doesn't stop this is just another delaying tactic and then they reduce a bunch of random crimes that are political in nature oh but the funniest thing they do is in 2001 they withdraw government protection for magistrates that are investigating him and so of course a lot of these magistrates that are investigating him. And so of course, a lot of these magistrates are like anti-mafia famously in 1992, one of them is blown up by a car bomb. So, you know,

these, these people are like under threat of their lives trying to investigate the mafia. And he essentially says, Oh yeah, his interior minister says they're not going to do state protection for all these people who just happened to be investigating him. But,

you know, and it kind of just goes on like that uh so i guess uh we could talk about his gaffes uh or i think we should talk about his successes yes he said he has uh addressed u.s congress and um they let him know that he set the record for longest standing ovation. What? Really? He, let's see. He has a bunch of awards. He's got a whole room dedicated to them. But at least at the time of the documentary, several of them were missing.

There used to be a lot more awards than he could find. And there must be a thief in his place. He also has a collection of roman statues that gaddafi gave him personally from libya the original place bunga bunga was done yeah um but yeah and so and then the other thing is he kept keeps passing these immunity laws like in 2003 he passes one that gave immunity from prosecution to the holders of the prime minister, the presidency, the speakers of the Senate, and the chambers of deputy, and the presidents of the constitutional court. This, of course, coincides with his lawyer being charged, and he puts his lawyer into one of these places to get them immunity.

And then this law is struck down by the Supreme Court, but because the statute of limitations drags on, this allows his lawyer to get off, and then he does this again when he returns to power. So he keeps passing these immunity laws, essentially. Oh, okay, I've got another story. I should have brought this up when we were talking about his childhood, but apparently he wasn't very popular in school.

That's when you all go, aww. And he was getting picked on a lot by his friends. Aww. Yeah. wasn't very popular in school. That's when you all go, aww. And he was getting picked on a lot by his friends. Aww. Yeah. And so he learned a valuable lesson. He was, it was raining outside and they were under

a little shelter and this one boy who had not been picking on him started picking on him. He was an older boy. And so Berlusconi then. You get to choose. Do you want to be picked on or do you want Bunga Bunga? Berlusconi then punched him in the face and like held his face under the water

so that he would get humiliated in front of like all the girls and other students and he was like and he never bullied me again and so that was how he learned the valuable childhood lesson that bullies are best confronted with like violence domination and humiliation uh so and he was smiling the whole time he told that story. So there's been like a bunch of gaffes of Berlusconi, you know, again, the Trump comparison. He like, once in 2003, when he was addressing the European Parliament, a German minister asked him about like

the obvious conflict of interest with his media holdings and, you know, being prime minister. And then he mentioned that he knew someone, Berlusconi mentions he knew someone who was making a film about Nazi concentration concentration camps and declared i will recommend you for the role of camp guard oh my god uh he's called angela on a wire is that a gaff yes on a wire i'm no i'm saying like that sounds like a good own on a wire tap uh burlesqueconi called Angela Merkel, quote, an unfuckable lard-ass, which he denies in the documentary. Berlusconi denies that.

Berlusconi flatly denies. But my favorite one is at a press conference in April 2008, he's at a press conference with Putin, who he has a close relationship with. A Russian journalist confronted Putin with rumors of an affair. Not one word of truth, said Putin. Berlusconi, who stood next to the ex-KGB despot, grinning like an idiot, made the shape of a pistol with his hands and pretended to take aim and fire at the female reporter. She is said to have left the room in tears uh perhaps not surprisingly because putin kills

journalists but uh that's from the book being burlesconi but yeah the guy has a good sense of humor um but so you know and again uh there's a there's a subsidy in this uh 2001 to 2006 government to media set basically they give them a massive taxpayer subsidy in order to convert to digital television uh we don't have time to go through all of the the the corruption that occurs here but uh he has a collection of 300 paintings of him that people have sent him and that includes one painting of mussolini that in the documentary uh the camera finds its way to it and then he like walks up in front of the camera and goes uh don't film this one, guys, because it's dangerous. What?

Yeah. Anyways, you might recognize that from the image for this podcast. So the other thing is, besides this subsidy, he loses power in 2006, partly out of anger of his incompetent management, partly out of he participates in the Iraq war enthusiastically, which the Italian public hates. But one of the last things he does is he does a law that means convicts age 70 or over never go to prison. And then this is right around when the time his 70-year-old lawyer gets convicted.

So his lawyer spends three days in jail uh because of this law after his conviction um and then of course burlesconi gets thrown out of power um but the uh the guy who comes after him prote we've got a pro di is you know kind of a technocrat again they're like trying to manage this uh euro standard which is like you have to keep your budget deficit it's the maastricht treaty yeah yeah you have to keep your budget deficit to like three percent of gdp and of course he does this after all that shit what takes out uh berlusconi yeah is uh standing up to uh the austerity police um but so no i mean i mean it kind of does give him the opportunity to return to power because he's oh okay so he's taking he eventually defends it right before that he's taken down in 2006

and then this guy who comes after him actually like starts enforcing tax collection more strictly to try to comply with master right and doing all this austerity and stuff. And so what happens is he's a this guy, Prodi, was enforcing taxation much more strictly than Berlusconi had. And so as soon as Berlusconi was reelected in 2008, he's out of power 2006 to 2008, tax revenues fall sharply again. And it is just like an interesting thing here. From the book Being Berlusconi, they're quoting an antique dealer who says, quote, here from the day Berlesconi won the election people stopped issuing receipts artisans plumbers and medical consultants shopkeepers all of them restauranteurs and hotel owners start issuing fake ones so basically like he's able to return to power because a lot

of people know that he's not going to enforce tax collection the way his predecessor so it's just kind of an interesting thing where austerity allows him to come back to power despite many people knowing that he was corrupt i mean we've talked a lot about how he consolidates his power of his media empire and how much of an advantage that is for him in his elections but kind of like the eventually that his luck with that kind of runs out and he has to get into power simply to maintain that empire and but there's a like there's a secondary thing where like the austerity politics and neoliberal parties like the so the so-called socialist party or the christian democrats are like their milquetoastness basically allows him to not have a competent uh competitor in those elections

and like the master criteria in particular which he's like eventually comes back to be a huge champion for master criteria right and the the euro staying in the euro like defying his northern where they call the northern coalition he he eventually opposes them the coalition like famously better than other times he famously defends staying in the euro and the master criteria really yeah unpopular at the time yeah well so it's interesting where essentially he comes back in 2008 and then this is where all the wheels come off where like i think there's speculation i think his mother dies in 2008 and she this is where all the wheels come off where like i think there's speculation i think his mother dies in 2008 and she was like kind of because he was always having

affairs and these kinds of things but he was more keeping it out of public view um like i think going at least going back to 2006 there were rumors that he was having these sex parties at you know his different villas um and so but interestingly enough he comes back 2008 within two months they do another immunity law which of course gets struck down but allows the stat take his first wife's silhouette seemed to say to him uh they they do this immunity law which gets struck down but again drags out the statute of limitations but importantly this this final term he starts appointing women that he wants to have sex with to various government

jobs um he he points um beautiful women with no qualifications to education minister environmental minister tourism minister and equal opportunity minister um two of them are heard on a wire tap talking about the best ways to give him oral sex um so, you know, it's really just kind of all falls apart here. Okay, Sean, I am sick of white men talking down gender representation in government. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. But so you might be familiar, if you're listening to this, with what's called Rubygate.

And so in uh 2010 a 17 year old exotic nightclub dancer is arrested for theft but then the prime minister silvio berlusconi calls the officials at the police station where she's being held and says that she is in fact the uh granddaughter of the egyptian president mubarak uh and uh she should be released into custody of a woman who berlusconi knows who's basically alleged to be a madam who procures Egyptian President Mubarak. And she should be released into custody of a woman who Berlusconi knows, who's basically alleged to be a madame who procures prostitutes for Berlusconi.

And so this woman is, again, 17 years old. And then seven months after this, in May 2011, Berlusconi is placed on trial and charged with paying for sex with a minor. And this is where the entire Bunga Bunga parties and such kind of spills into the public light. And there's just like tons of witnesses and evidence as to what went on at these Bunga Bunga parties.

It's all pretty weird. Like one girl describes them as nude girls would dance around a giant phallus, like a statue of a giant penis, while they chanted Berlusconi's theme tune, which roughly translates to thank goodness for Silvio. Apparently, according to the testimony

of this 17-year-old in Italian court, the night that she was at the Bunga Bunga party, there was a stripper dressed as Obama female stripper I think she was black so it wasn't problematic mm-hmm dressed as Obama just imagine that as a world leader being like I need to see the American president as someone I want to have sex with. Let me be clear. You can choose death or you can choose Bunga Bunga. Do you like your Bunga Bunga?

You can keep it. So, according to witnesses, girls who would, basically they would do these dances where they would fondle each other and fondle the prime minister. There would sometimes be up to 20 girls, just him there. Guests would be paid around 2,000 to 3,000 euros, except for the ones that he selected to sleep with and stay overnight would be paid around 5 000 euros um and basically uh he's indicted in this from may 2011 but then two of his associates are picked up uh just three months later uh talking about how he's still doing these parties so he was clearly like having a sickness or something and uh the the girl the underage girl Ruby she was from a Moroccan household that came to Italy she was relatively poor she had to flee because he should strict Islamic parents she ended up you know

prostituting and stripping and such but she actually managed to according to one attorney involved she received a sum of over six million euros from companies connected to burlesque only because of course she was testifying in this trial right and partly why they weren't actually able to get him on this was her testimony was unreliable she said that they never had sex despite other evidence that they did um her boyfriend uh or one of her boyfriends at the time said that she'd stayed over and so you know i mean clearly they did um what you're saying just if a woman stays over at a man's place, they had sex. Wow, Sean, you're sexist.

Yeah. Yes. Why wouldn't a 72-year-old be seeing a 17-year-old prostitute for anything but innocent reasons? To keep her off the streets. Clearly, she needed a place to stay yeah paid to do her homework um but so according to um so and like there's just so many different women uh not all of whom were prostitutes but some of them you know were job seekers some of them were just uh interested and so according to the memoir of one um uh escort he was seeing uh this is a quote from it having been an escort i thought i'd seen a fair few things but i'd never

seen 20 women for one man normally in an orgy you have roughly the same number of men and women otherwise people get upset but but here the other ones but here the other men had no say. This is basic orgy math, guys. There was just one man with the right to copulate, and that was the prime minister. If this isn't the patriarchy, then I don't know what is. And again, I mean, this is a horrifying uh his second wife around this time leaves him he he was married the first time this is the woman who like take me take me or whatever

uh he leaves her in 1980 take me take me his first wife's silhouette seemed to say to him uh he he leaves in uh or he leaves her in 1980 for like a showgirl this is his second wife he's still constantly cheating on her but she finally leaves him uh right around the time this scandal comes out or just before she leaves him with a public letter which says quote i can no longer stay with a man who hangs around with minors uh And so this is also prompted because Berlusconi in April 2009, he turns up at the 18th birthday party of a girl who wanted to go on to a career in politics and television.

Well, there you go. Not illegal. Yes. Berlusconi handed her a present. He's learned like R. Kelly, apparently. A $7,000 choker necklace. And she revealed in an interview two days later that Berlusconi had brought her jewelry

at previous meetings. This is all, of course, before she turned 18. Oh, yeah, and sorry, I messed it up. It was her boyfriend who said that she had, when she was 17 years old, spent more than a week over 2008, 2009 with between 30 and 40 young girls at the mogululs Sardinian

pleasure palace and uh I mean you can't prove that they had sex that's just the name of the place Sean okay don't read into it and uh one more yeah it's just it's translated from Italian it translates weird

well one more thing from his wife on hearing the news from the book being burlesconi on hearing the news of her husband's attendance at the birthday bash uh her response was terse this news surprises me surprised me because he'd never come to an 18th birthday party of any of his own children despite being invited um Yeah, and so look, it just kind of goes on like this. We unfortunately, we can't get to all of the pedophilia and corruption Sylvia Berlusconi has been involved in.

But, you know, I think we can reveal here that we wanted to do an episode on Jeffrey Epstein next week. We will be doing that. So we wanted to ease you into it by gradually lowering the age of consent that the billionaires were talking about respect. And so I guess just to

kind of like round it out here, a couple more allegations and then we'll sum up. The WikiLeaks showed that the U.S. embassy was concerned that Berlusconi's closeness to Vladimir Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, was based on... Oh, who was that? Yes. The coordinator of Wiki... What does he do? The WikiLeaks cable.

Berlusconi and his cronies are profiting personally and handsomely from many of the energy deals between Italy and Russia. So, you know, I mean, like... And that's the kind of stuff where if someone were to leak it, that person should be locked up and tortured for years because that is very sensitive to American national security. Yes.

That was probably leaked by Chelsea Manning. That's a video tour. Well, and so, you know, just like two other hits here in 2009 there's an earthquake in la quayla uh in italy and the cleanup is still ongoing basically it's alleged that a lot of the cleanup contracts under berlusconi were given to organized crime figures and these people were given like temporary housing which many of them are thousands of them are still in and then like the the clean off site was like blocked off. And then apparently a few years after someone

like went and checked it out and it was exactly the same. Um, but eventually in 2011, this bunga bunga comes out and then there's a scheme with like a various European powers and the, the then president of Italy and they push him out in 2011. He becomes a senator for a bit, but 2013, they finally get him on tax evasion, and then he does a year of community service once a week. He never sees a day in jail, and he's banned from office, but he, of course, three days ago,

has announced that he will be running for the European Parliament. Woo! Yeah, I mean, and that's the story of Berlusconi, and it's interesting where where the real power is the european union parliament yes well it's it's so the the article i read speculated that essentially he's doing this to like put his name out there which will increase vote share for his party and give him more bargaining power in the coalition

because of course in italy the government has come to power and this is like if you're going to say berlusconi is like trump the really scary thing is essentially what has come to italy after berlusconi because berlusconi was able to keep his power because his opposition was divided kind of corrupt but not as corrupt and also committed to austerity and punishing italian people um so he was able to keep his power and he used his power to protect himself keep himself out of jail uh enrich himself greatly and um and then what happens is of course there's no benefit for the average italian person so they turn to a semi-fascist government and and if i can just quote here uh the uh current i believe interior what's the word for fascist in Italian? The deputy from the Independent,

the current deputy prime minister of Italy said in an interview last year, quote, we need a mass cleansing, street by street, plaza by plaza, neighborhood by neighborhood, on migrants. We need to be tough

because there are entire parts of our cities, entire parts of Italy that are out of control. And the government has uh since it came to power the current government italy has announced quote a census of the country's gypsy community so just like one of those things that is like deeply disturbing in terms of if you're sure some of the some of that was lost in translation that's it sounds much worse than it is but boomer yeah yeah um but it is just something where it's

like if you want to keep the trump analogy going the scary thing i don't i don't think we have to worry about that because mueller's about to take them down and then we're going to have president mike pence yeah who is known for uh pursuing moderate rational policies but it is just like one last little hit of corruption uh research published in 2014 found that um there was a significant uh bias towards advertising with berlusconi's tv stations during the time he was in power no really the author said companies tried to court political advantage by directing advertising to the moguls tv channels so it's something where it's like again he said i'm a billionaire i don't need money but of course he's greatly enriched himself with the

prime ministership and it's not clear that he's done anything except enrich himself and have sex with children so good billionaire so he's a real michael bloomberg we going to have to beep that name. But yeah, look, couldn't get to everything, but I guess any closing thoughts on Mr. Bunga Bunga? It's a pretty good test of our new purpose

of is there, are billionaires useless? Yeah. We're going to slowly shift from is there such thing as a good billionaire to uh is there such thing as a useful billionaire and you know what i think this guy's pretty useful now look burlesconi sounds pretty bad listening to this episode but if you check us out next week and listen to our jeffrey epstein episode we've just been gradually ratcheting up the debauchery every single episode, starting with Oprah.

And it's gotten to such an extreme that they're the only next logical step. Is to go to Epstein. Anyway, so I do want to say a heartfelt congratulations to our co-host, Yogi. Oh, yeah. For ending his life of sin and getting engaged. Monogamy is my gummy now. Yeah.

So now we got one engaged grub staker, one married grub staker, and Stephen and I are living together. Two filthy pigs. Under the ire of the Lord. All right, can we wrap this up? I can't wait to come to Yogi's last Bunga Bunga party. And with that, I'm Yogi Paiwal. Steve Jeffers. I'm Andy Palmer.

I'm Sean McCarthy. Thanks for listening. Check us out next week. Silvio Berlusconi's accountant brought 20 million euros in cash to the former premier's luxury villa to pay girls who attended his infamous bunga bunga parties, a court heard last week. His accountant said, he asked me to bring the money in cash and I would put it in a safe at the villa. 165,000 euros, while in 2010, when it was needed most, when everybody else was inflicting austerity upon us, well, Silvio Berlusconi got very, very generous.

He paid out more than 12 million euros. That's almost 33,000 euros per day for every single day of the year for these girls.