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How the head of the Italian government took over the country's largest publishing house. A brisk, fierce and biting enquiry into the heart of high finance, the legal system and politics.

In 1987, the sudden death of Mario Formenton, the head of Mondadori, Italy's largest publishing house, triggered a battle of succession between two of the country's most skilled businessmen, Silvio Berlusconi and Carlo De Benedetti, both minor shareholders.
In December 1988, De Benedetti, who was the architect of the merger between Mondadori and the media group that published L'Espresso and La Reppublica, signed an agreement with the heirs, which secured him control of the two merged companies. A year later, there was an unexpected twist in the tale - to enlarge his media empire, Berlusconi convinced Formenton's widow to sell him her share, and he thus gained the presidency of the group. Taken to court by De Beneditti, arbitrators condemned the transaction and demanded that the heirs respect their initial commitments. Berlusconi then took his case to the Rome Court of Appeals. In January 1991, amid much surprise, the Rome Court of Appeals - known locally as "the Port of Fog", nullified the arbitrators' decision, and handed him back control of Mondadori.
Four years later, while enquiring into the accounts of Berlusconi's company Fininvest, the Milan public prosecution fortunately discovered that the appeal ruling had been "bought". Berlusconi was charged with corruption, along with the magistrate involved, Judge Metta, and one of his lawyers, Cesare Previti.
It was the beginning of a very long legal tussle, during which Berlusconi, the Forza Italia leader, came to power for the first time in April 1994, and then again in June 2001. He had been acquitted on the basis that there were no grounds for prosecution as the statute of limitations had expired. He then pulled out every stop to avoid his allies being convicted. This included having ad-hoc laws passed by "his" deputies.