Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi appears, in many respects, to be living the life implied by many of the culturally exploitative Hollywood hits like the Sopranos or the Godfather- but just how involved he is with the mafia or any kind of organized crime remains a mystery.

What is no mystery, though, is that rumors, allegations and hear-say of connections between Berlusconi and crime are pretty common- which doesn’t make them true, but it does make them tough to ignore. Just this week, a mafia hitman said as part of testimony that his godfather had bragged about links to Berlusconi.

Berlusconi- understandably- is saying that a biased court is making false charges against him to bring down the government that he is heading.

If you don’t know much about Berlusconi, he has a massive media empire in Italy called Mediaset, has led three different coalitions in the Italian government over the last 15 or so years, and is involved in divorce proceedings from his most recent wife, purportedly because he spends so much time with younger women. I mean, media empire? Prime Minister? Younger women? The Mafia? This guy is living it.

The charges against him are now, as they have been in the past, of bribing various legal officials, lawyers and judges.

Gaspare Spatuzza, a mobster-turned-witness, told a Turin court:

"Graviano [the godfather] told me we had obtained everything, thanks to the seriousness of the people who'd helped with our affair ... he mentioned two names, he called Berlusconi 'the man from Channel 5’.”

He quoted Graviano as saying: "We have everything thanks to the seriousness of these people, specifically Berlusconi ... they put the country in our hands."

"It is completely logical the Mafia would use its members to make statements against the prime minister of a government that has acted in a determined and concrete way against organized crime," said spokesman Paolo Bonaiuti.

Which does make a good deal of sense- Berlusconi may be a shady guy, but it could also be that he has turned on his former allies in the mob and now they are out to get him- or it could be that the mafia in general is just out to smear his name because he has been tough on the mafia in and around Italy, as Bonaiuti expanded:

"Our government has arrested eight Mafiosi a day. It has arrested 15 of the 30 most wanted fugitives. It has confiscated an average of 8 million euros from the mafia a day for a total of 5.6 billion euros.”

That’s some serious money and people taken down. Regardless of what was going on in the past, clearly Berlusconi is no friend to the mafia these days.

Berlusconi, for his part, eloquently defends himself: "If there's a person who by nature, sensitivity, mentality, background, culture and political effort is very far from the Mafia, it is me.”

Berlusconi has had 109 cases brought against him since entering politics- he has not been convicted in any of them- none.

What happens with this new round of corruption cases is likely to follow that lead.

Photo Credit: rogimmi (via Flickr under CCL)