Fininvest

Fininvest is a financial holding company controlled by Silvio Berlusconi's family and managed by Silvio Berlusconi's eldest daughter Marina Berlusconi.

Structure

The Fininvest group is composed of a number important companies: Mediolanum (an insurance and banking company), Medusa (a major Italian film production company), Mondadori (one of Italy's leading publishing companies), A.C. Milan (a football team) and Mediaset, which is currently the biggest private entertainment competitor in Italy, owning three channels (Canale 5, Italia 1, Rete 4), two channels in Spain, Endemol, a digital TV broadcasting network and many other companies related to TV broadcasting.

The Berlusconi family doesn't control the company directly. Instead, its shares are owned by 38 separate companies, all named 'Holding Italiana' followed by a number (1-38), most of which are in turn controlled by Berlusconi. These 'Holding Italiane' have repeatedly come under investigation by the police for various financial and accounting irregularities, slush funds and money-laundering. All of them were created at the end of the 1970s by covert associates of Berlusconi's and received significant investments (several hundreds of millions of euros at today's value) from still unknown sources. Some of their liquidity was even deposited in cash.Much of the documentation of that time relative to the early financial and banking operations of these companies has been lost, in one case in a fire.

A report on those matters...
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