AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi has been sentenced to four years in jail for tax evasion.
The former Italian Prime Minister is expected to appeal against the sentence and he has also been barred from holding public office for three years.
The 76-year-old media tycoon was not in the courtroom for the verdict on the case which stems from dealings in his Mediaset business empire.
The prosecution had claimed Berlusconi - and 10 other defendants - had bought television rights for US films through a series of offshore companies, before falsely declaring the payments in order to avoid taxes.
Berlusconi, 76, was Italy's longest-serving post-war Prime Minister, but he resigned last November over his country's debt crisis.
He remained AC Milan's president and owner, as well as Italy's richest man. It is not clear yet what the consequences of Berlusconi's imprisonment will be for the Rossoneri.
