Tragic.
I'm not familiar with the Italian legal system, but will they seriously have a chance of serving their whole sentence?
No, they won't serve a thing. Not even an hour!
Tragic.
I'm not familiar with the Italian legal system, but will they seriously have a chance of serving their whole sentence?
After being found guilty for tax evasion, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have revealed that they may have to close their business should they ultimately have to pay back the hundreds of millions in back taxes -- totaling around $455 million.
"We will close," said Dolce. "What do you want us to do? We will close. We will not be able to deal with it. It's impossible."
"If we deserved the sentence, there would be nothing to say," added Gabbana. "But we do not deserve it, and so unfortunately we would have to close."
In June, the duo were found guilty of failing to declare hundreds of millions in income, and handed down a suspended sentence of 20 months although they will not spend time behind bars. Italian law allows for sentences of less than three years to be served with house arrest or community service. When they pair sold their brands to a holding company called Gado, which they established in Luxuembourg in 2004, it enabled them to avoid a higher tax rate... later prompting charges against them.
Despite being found guilty, both Dolce and Gabbana say they are not the thieves they are depicted to be.
"We are not going to give in to being crucified like thieves, because we are not," said Gabbana. "How could we accept being branded tax evaders?
"We are good people, we live in Italy we pay taxes in Italy, we don't pretend to live abroad."
After being sentenced, the duo subsequently closed their Milan stores, bars and restaurants for three days in protest.
There is no doubt that that their Spring show is going to be a spectacular of some sort in response to the verdict.
If the girls walk out in prison uniforms as if to send a message to the Italian government, I would still enjoy it cause it'll finally break the Sicilian streak. And who knows, maybe they can even have a good cast of sexy and diverse girls again.
Personally, I'm expecting dresses with "F*ck You Milan" and "I <3 ROME" prints.
uk.reuters.comAn Italian prosecutor asked an appeals court to clear fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana from charges of evading taxes on royalties of 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion).
The design duo, whose corset dresses are liked by celebrities such as Kylie Minogue and Kate Moss, were handed a 20-month suspended prison sentence by a lower court in June and a fine of up to 10 million euros for allegedly using Luxembourg subsidiary Gado to avoid declaring taxes on the royalties.
The designers, who denied any wrongdoing, have strongly criticised the ruling and even shut their Milan stores for three days in July in protest at the public outcry that followed the sentence.
"The criminal conviction (handed in June) clashes with common sense from a legal point of view," Milan prosecutor Gaetano Santamaria Amato told judges in his last speech before the appeals' court verdict, which is expected in the next few weeks.
Although the prosecutor's request is non-binding, it increases the likelihood that Dolce and Gabbana will be acquitted.
The pair's designs are inspired by the island of Sicily, homeland to Dolce. They showed their first collection in 1985 in Milan. The brand took hold internationally in the 1990s and global revenues hit just under 1.5 billion euros in 2011.
The case stems from an investigation that began in 2008, when Italian tax authorities stepped up their fight against tax evasion as a global financial crisis began to bite.
Previous tax cases involving celebrities in Italy have led to out-of-court settlements.
In 2000 the late opera singer Luciano Pavarotti paid more than $12 million in back taxes, while former MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi agreed to pay $51 million to Italy's tax agency in 2008. ($1 = 0.7255 Euros)