MILAN—The former top news anchor for Silvio Berlusconi’s TG4 mediaset, Emilio Fede, has been sentenced to three and half years in prison for bankruptcy fraud in relation to a loan Berlusconi granted to ex-talent scout Lela Mora in order to save his agency from folding.

 The Milan Court found Fede to be guilty of pocketing 1.1 million euros of the 2.75 million given to Lela Mora’s LM Managements business by the former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

 The court also ordered that Fede immediately reimburse the full amount skimmed from the company to Dario Mora, the administrator of the bankrupt agency.

 Berlusconi’s loan was given to Lela Mora back in 2010 in order to try and save the ex-talent scout’s agency. The pair had known each other for a long time and Mora said that he was able to call Berlusconi in person to ask for help.

 However, the money never made it to the LM Management company as Fede took 40 percent and Mora the rest.  Mora, who has already negotiated his sentence for his crimes, is said to have used to money to fund his life of ‘luxury and wastefulness.’

 “That money would have been of service to put right the disastrous situation in which Mora’s company found itself in,” said public minister Eugenio Fusco.

 However, Fede, who will turn 86 at the end of June, continued to protest his innocence.

 “I will continue to defend myself, I only hope to see a definitive sentence. I could ask anything from Berlusconi, let’s imagine if I would skim the money he gave to Mora who was in a difficult moment, but I am old and they can’t send me to a cell,” said Fede.

 Similarly, Fede’s lawyer, Alessandra Guarini, announced that they would be appealing the recent sentence.

 “It’s a sentence that we will contest because it’s absolutely unjust, Emilio Fede has nothing to do with these events and we will demonstrate this in our appeal,” added Guarini.

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