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Designer faces jail in £1.5m tax case over home revamp
By Nick Pisa in Rome
(Filed: 19/02/2006)
The fashion designer Roberto Cavalli faces two years in jail after being prosecuted for an alleged £1.5 million tax fraud.
Cavalli, 65, who counts Victoria Beckham, Madonna and Jennifer Lopez among his friends, ran up the bill for home improvements to his villa and tried to claim it as a business expense, setting the work against his annual company tax bill and insisting that he often used his home for fashion shoots.
But officers from the Guardia di Finanza, Italy's version of HM Revenue and Customs, were suspicious and officials said the improvements, which included a helicopter hangar and landing pad in addition to an indoor and outdoor pool, could not possibly represent a legitimate business expense.
Tomasso Coletta, prosecuting, put forward the case against Cavalli in a three-year trial which was adjourned last week in Florence. A judge is now considering both a verdict and sentencing.
Cavalli, widely regarded as Italy's leading fashion designer, insists that his home's fittings are essential for entertaining clients. He told the court: "My house is not my home - it's my workplace, it's my office, it's my imagination and where I have fashion shoots. It's the place where Madonna, Sting, Cindy Crawford and Jennifer Lopez try the clothes that I create. It's where I welcome my most important clients.
"That is why I claimed the cost of the improvements against my tax liability. It is a legitimate expense."
Cavalli's hilltop home at Pian dei Giullari on the outskirts of Florence is said to be one of the finest in Italy. It commands views of the Duomo and is reported to be worth £10 million.
He lives there with his wife, Eva Duringer, a former Miss Universe, and their three children.
Mr Coletta said the work, carried out between 1996 and 2000, was for Cavalli's personal use and should not have been offset against company tax. He dismissed the designer's claims and urged Judge Linda Vannucci to impose the maximum two-year sentence for making a false declaration.
Cavalli's defence lawyer, Alessandro Traversi, told the Sunday Telegraph: "Mr Cavalli is convinced he has done nothing wrong and the building work was a legitimate business expense. All the bills went through the books of Mr Cavalli's business because the work done on the villa was a legitimate business expense." Cavalli will have the automatic right to appeal should the judge decide to jail him.
(telegraph.co.uk)
By Nick Pisa in Rome
(Filed: 19/02/2006)
The fashion designer Roberto Cavalli faces two years in jail after being prosecuted for an alleged £1.5 million tax fraud.
Cavalli, 65, who counts Victoria Beckham, Madonna and Jennifer Lopez among his friends, ran up the bill for home improvements to his villa and tried to claim it as a business expense, setting the work against his annual company tax bill and insisting that he often used his home for fashion shoots.
But officers from the Guardia di Finanza, Italy's version of HM Revenue and Customs, were suspicious and officials said the improvements, which included a helicopter hangar and landing pad in addition to an indoor and outdoor pool, could not possibly represent a legitimate business expense.
Tomasso Coletta, prosecuting, put forward the case against Cavalli in a three-year trial which was adjourned last week in Florence. A judge is now considering both a verdict and sentencing.
Cavalli, widely regarded as Italy's leading fashion designer, insists that his home's fittings are essential for entertaining clients. He told the court: "My house is not my home - it's my workplace, it's my office, it's my imagination and where I have fashion shoots. It's the place where Madonna, Sting, Cindy Crawford and Jennifer Lopez try the clothes that I create. It's where I welcome my most important clients.
"That is why I claimed the cost of the improvements against my tax liability. It is a legitimate expense."
Cavalli's hilltop home at Pian dei Giullari on the outskirts of Florence is said to be one of the finest in Italy. It commands views of the Duomo and is reported to be worth £10 million.
He lives there with his wife, Eva Duringer, a former Miss Universe, and their three children.
Mr Coletta said the work, carried out between 1996 and 2000, was for Cavalli's personal use and should not have been offset against company tax. He dismissed the designer's claims and urged Judge Linda Vannucci to impose the maximum two-year sentence for making a false declaration.
Cavalli's defence lawyer, Alessandro Traversi, told the Sunday Telegraph: "Mr Cavalli is convinced he has done nothing wrong and the building work was a legitimate business expense. All the bills went through the books of Mr Cavalli's business because the work done on the villa was a legitimate business expense." Cavalli will have the automatic right to appeal should the judge decide to jail him.
(telegraph.co.uk)
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hmmm...TOM FORD 
