Businessman who supplied women for Berlusconi's parties arrested India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

Giampaolo Tarantini, the businessman who claims to have supplied Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, with a stream of women for parties, has been arrested at Bari airport in southern Italy. Antonio Laudati, the chief prosecutor in Bari, said Tarantini had been arrested at Bari airport for "dealing in drugs" and in case he tried to flee the country. Tarantini was under investigation for allegedly "abetting prostitution" by paying Italian and foreign women to go to Berlusconi's villas. There was also a "strong risk" that he would "tamper with evidence", Laudati said. Nico D'Ascola, Tarantini's lawyer, confirmed the arrest, reports The Times. Tarantini is also being investigated for allegedly supplying prostitutes to centre-Left politicians in Bari and the Apulia region in connection with alleged corruption over contracts to supply health equipment to the region's hospitals. Tarantini has admitted to Bari prosecutors that he supplied 30 women for 18 parties hosted by Berlusconi. He told investigators: "To this end I incurred considerable expense to enter into his confidence. Knowing of his interest in the female sex, I brought him girls who I presented as my friends - keeping quiet about the fact that I had paid them." Tarantini added that he wanted to "establish a network in the public administration because I thought that these days girls and cocaine were the key to access and success in society".