THE Italian fashion designer, Giorgio Armani, received a nine month suspended sentence and was fined 100 million lire (£39,000) yesterday under a plea bargain arrangement, after pleading guilty to charges of bribing the tax authorities.
Mr Armani and his agent were among a number of top fashion designers who went on trial on charges of bribery in the culmination of an investigation launched in 1994 by then judge Antonio di Pietro, an anti corruption crusader who brought down Italy's old political guard.
In all, nine of 18 defendants fashion people, agents and tax inspectors made deals with the prosecutor to avoid going to jail. Armani's fine was the amount he paid in bribes to tax inspectors in 1990 and 1991 in exchange for friendly audits.
None of the I 8 defendants was present at yesterday's session. The trial should have begun last September but has been delayed three times because of a chronic backlog in the Italian judicial system.
Other fashion gurus charged are Santo Versace brother of Gianni Gianfranco Ferre and Mariuccia Mandelli, better known as the designer Krizia. They have refused plea bargain arrangements and for them the trial continues.
The fashion leaders have claimed they were forced to make under the table payments by corrupt tax police. As for Armani, if he had pleaded not guilty and been convicted he could have expected a tougher sentence.
Two tax officials received suspended sentences of a year and a half after they reached agreements with the state. Two others were sentenced to a year and two months.
Versace is president of his brother's multi million dollar fashion empire, while Ferre is head of his own fashion house is and an artistic director of Christian Dior in Paris.
Suspicion over their activities arose due to their leading positions in the upper reaches of Milanese society, especially at a time when the northern city was dominated by the Socialist Party led by a former prime minister, Bettino Craxi.
Versace dressed Craxi's wife while Krizia was a guest of honour at party functions. Craxi is living in Tunisia but has been sentenced in absentia to 26 years and three months in prison for corruption.
Interviewed by di Petro, Armani and Ferre admitted paying 100 million lire and 300 million lire in bribes respectively, claiming they were victims of extortion.
"At Milan we were all conditioned and tied to a certain way of doing things. Even to arrange a fashion show, wherever it was, needed the goodwill of others. It was like we were caught in a spider's web," Armani said in September 1994 when the inquiry opened.
The indictments coincided with the city's autumn fashion week, which some in the Milan fashion world suggested had been timed for maximum dramatic effect.
. The newly elected speaker of Italy's parliament said yesterday that the "use of force" would be legitimate to prevent division of the country through secession by the north.
Mr Luciano Violante made it clear in an acceptance speech that he did not believe force would be necessary, but his remarks were the strongest response in Rome yet to threats by the Northern League party to divide Italy.
The Northern League leader, Mr Umberto Bossi, said last Sunday that federalism was no longer enough and that he would push for a Czechoslovak style break up of Italy.