Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce (R) and Stefano Gabbana
BBC
Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have been
sentenced to jail in Italy for one year and eight months for tax
evasion.
The pair were not at the trial and deny the charges.
They are accused of hiding millions of euros from Italian tax authorities.
Dolce and Gabbana have not yet given a public comment on the sentence
and are likely to appeal the verdict. They are said to be unlikely to go
to jail any time soon.
Their customers have included Madonna, Kylie Minogue, Kate Moss and Bryan Ferry.
The investigation by the Italian authorities began around six years ago
as part of a government plan to crack down on tax avoidance.
At the hearing on Wednesday, the judge ruled that the designers moved
their brand to a Luxembourg-based holding company Gado in 2004.
He said they had done this to avoid declaring taxes on royalties of around 1 billion euros (£833m; $1.3bn).
Prosecutors alleged they sold the business for well below actual market value.
They were initially cleared of the charges at a previous trial in April
2011 but Italy's highest court overturned that ruling, ordering that
the case should be sent back.
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