21.   Prosecutors claim the payoffs were made in exchange for favorable audits and covering up financial woes at debt-troubled Fininvest.

22.   Ten designers and business associates are accused of bribing tax police and inspectors in exchange for favorable audits.

23.   The request for trial indictment stemmed from a probe, made public in September, of suspected bribes by designers to tax inspectors allegedly in return for favorable audits.

24.   They are accused of bribing tax police and inspectors in exchange for favorable audits.

25.   They are accused of bribing tax police and inspectors in exchange of favorable audits.

26.   Trial began in January in a case centering on allegations that Berlusconi authorized payoffs to tax police in exchange for favorable audits of his Fininvest media empire.