ROME - Former Prime Minster Silvio Berlusconi is back in the news as the sale of AC Milan, through his holding company Fininvest, is being viewed with suspicion.

 A 2007 law requires all anomalous financial transactions, transactions that contain the possible risk of money laundering or fraud, to be reported to the Financial Information Unit (UIF).

 If the UIF deems there to be something strange in the transaction then they report it to the Special Currency Police, a subsection of the Financial police for cases in which "we suspect or have reasonable grounds to suspect that money laundering or terrorist financing is being carried out or attempted.”

 Currently, the investigation into the the sale is at the level of the Special Currency Police.

 The origin of the money has been traced back to Chinese financier Yonghong Li, the official buyer of the club, through Hong Kong.

 Berlusconi’s daughter Marina, chairman of Finivest, has insisted that the company has behaved “absolutely transparently and correctly” in the sale of the club.

 In the past three years, 73 percent of cases that have progressed to this stage of investigation are referred to judicial authorities. 

kvh