A magazine has alleged that the PM had spent a weekend in a luxurious Umbrian health spa with an entourage of women, including an actress and a former showgirl who have worked for his television stations.
Prosecutors in Bari in southern Italy are probing a businessman, Giampaolo Tarantini, who is suspected of assisting in prostitution by allegedly paying women to attend parties at Berlusconi’s homes in the capital and Sardinia
However, Tarantini has denied all wrongdoing.
According to the magazine L’Espresso, Berlusconi, with Tarantini and “many” young women, had spent the weekend of November 28-30 last year at the Health Centre Marc Messegue near the picturesque hilltop town of Todi in Umbria, to undergo massage therapy to relieve back pain.
It is believed that the billionaire politician’s retinue did include Tarantini, who arrived by car with a number of young women, after getting lost in the countryside.
The female guests allegedly included Barbara Guerra, a former television showgirl, and Licia Nunez, an actress and friend of Tarantini.
Guerra denied the magazine’s report saying that she did not know the people mentioned in the article, including Nunez and Berlusconi.
“None of it is true. I know nothing about this weekend. I was working at the time,” Times Online quoted her as saying.
Even Nunez told the magazine that she knew nothing about the weekend.