What was UK Solicitor David Mills Thinking?

(Posted on 23/12/11)

Claiming he was trying to bypass owning up to working with an associate he didn't want to have to own up to, UK solicitor David Mills testified in court that he's incredibly ashamed of lying about receiving £382,000 from former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. He finally admitted where it really came from via video teleconferencing from Westminster Magistrates' Court.
The former prime minister has been accused of paying off his tax lawyer to lie under oath in the mid-1990s and is just one of four lawsuits Berlusconi is facing. He resigned in November and has vehmently denied charges being leveled against him.

You may remember, too, that Mills, who was convicted of perjury in early 2009, is married to former Labour cabinent minister Tessa Jowell, who he's now separated from. Less than a year later, however, the Italian Supreme Court ruled the conviction wasn't legal due to statute of limitations laws.

Mills now claims his testimony was "pure imagination...fiction...a novel". He testified:

"I had two major worries...the first was that I had to be able to justify to the Inland Revenue why I had registered it as a gift and therefore not taxable...my second concern was in relation to Diego Attanasio. I had two reasons to be worried about him as I didn't want to cause him trouble in Italy and, secondly, because I was investing in his affairs and I didn't wish that to be a subject of any interest either."

Mills continued in court:

"I was in a panic, unable to sleep and was not in a normal state of mind...I needed to provide to the Inland Revenue a story which explained why I had treated the money as a gift and not as income...In other words, to show to the Inland Revenue that I had made a mistake in good faith and not because I was merely trying to evade my taxes."

Mills is often reminded that he may find himself in legal hot water in Italy if he refuses to give complete answers to the courts.

For Berlusconi's part, he faces at least two more corruption trials and is also accused in another case of paying an underage prostitute as well as of abuse of power. He continues to declare his innocence.