8 Charged With Supplying Berlusconi Hookers

Pimps, prostitutes, wiretaps, and blackmail: It's another week for the Berlusconi administration. Italian prosecutors have charged eight people with supplying prostitutes for sex parties at the prime minister's residence, reports the BBC. The ring was allegedly run by businessman Giampaolo Tarantini, who is already behind bars on charges that he attempted to extort cash from Berlusconi in return for lying to investigators.

One of the men charged offered a well-known Italian actress the chance to present a national song contest if she slept with Berlusconi, according to court papers. Over a thousand wiretap transcripts were made during the investigation and some have begun to leak to the media—including one in which Berlusconi advises one of the men accused of procuring prostitutes to stay out of the country and promises to exonerate everybody. (More Silvio Berlusconi stories.)