Italian media man, business consultant and political fixer Valter Lavitola, who is being investigated on money laundering and extortion charges at home, is spending some time in Panama.
“I am in Panama but will return soon,” Lavitola told Libero-News.it. ”I know that once I set foot in Italy, the first step will be to lead me to a cell.”
The Italian L’Espresso newspaper reports that the extortion accusation is based on hush money that Lavitola allegedly received for keeping quiet about the prostitutes that businessman Gianpaolo Tarantini and his wife, Angela Devenuto, provided for 18 of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s x-rated bunga bunga parties.
Lavitola was also tied to the international sales operations of Finmeccanica, a partially state-owned Italian consortium that was awarded a $250 million no-bid contract for six Augusto Westland-139 helicopters, 18 radar stations and digital mapping services to monitor Panama’s coasts in the war on narcotrafficking. Finmeccanica is currently being investigated for corruption in obtaining the contract.
In somewhat related news, the Independent reports that Berlusconi called German Chancellor Angela Merkel a culona inchiavabile in wiretapped conversations with Vitrola.
See Also: Panama Meeting Narco Threat with More Technology, Most Expensive Suite Reserved for Berlusconi and Italian Force is Strong in Panama, Berlusconi Coming.
Valter Lavitola
