Judging by the number of suits against him, the feeling is mutual. In a taped conversation with an alleged blackmailer, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi lashed out at his country, saying “I'm leaving this shitty country of which I'm sickened.” Berlusconi was speaking with the editor of a small newspaper, one of three people accused of extorting €500,000, or $710,000, from him. Giampaolo Tarantini, another member of the group, says he supplied 30 women for parties at Berlusconi's Roman palazzo. "They can say about me that I screw,” Berlusconi told his alleged blackmailer. “It's the only thing they can say about me.”
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