Billionaire businessman and former
Sardinia governor Renato Soru was indicted Monday over the 2014
bankruptcy of former Communist daily l'Unità.
Soru, 65, was sent to trial starting February 13 next year.
He and others are accused of bankruptcy by drawing off funds and
dissipation.
Soru was a partner in the former house organ of the
once-powerful Italian Communist Party (PCI) from 2008 until
2015.
Sardinian-boen Soru is the founder of the internet service
company Tiscali, based in Cagliari.
In 2001 Forbes listed Soru as one of the world's richest people,
with a net worth of over $4 billion (US) as of September that
year.
Sour was a centre-left governor of his home island from 2004
until he resigned in 2008.
He made another run at the post the following year but was
defeated by a centre-right candidate.
On 5 May 2016, Soru was sentenced to three years in prison for
tax evasion that amounted to about 2.6 million euro and was
connected to a loan made by the company Andalas Ldt to Tiscali.
The sentence was reversed by the Italian court of appeal on 8
May 2017, with a full acquittal.
l'Unità was founded as the official newspaper of the PCI in
1924. It was supportive of that party's successor parties, the
Democratic Party of the Left, Democrats of the Left, and, from
October 2007 until its closure, the current Democratic Party
(PD).
The newspaper closed on 31 July 2014.
It was restarted on 30 June 2015, but it ceased again on 3 June
2017.
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