Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who transformed Italy’s political and cultural landscape despite avoiding numerous legal and sex scandals, passed away on Monday at the age of 86, his spokesman announced.

The multibillionaire media mogul was checked into a hospital in Milan on Friday for leukemia-related testing, according to aides.

According to Berlusconi’s personal doctor, Dr. Alberto Zangrillo, the politician was admitted to the hospital on April 5 with a disease-related lung infection. He was hospitalized for COVID-19 in 2020, as well as heart problems and prostate cancer over the years.

Berlusconi’s personal life was hounded by scandal, particularly surrounding what became known as “bunga bunga” sex parties, which resulted in him being hauled to court.

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Here’s a list of scandals Silvio Berlusconi was involved in:

Bunga Bunga

In a case involving child prostitution that contributed to his downfall ten years ago, the former Italian premier was declared not guilty in February. In relation to his infamous “bunga bunga” parties hosted at his villa in Arcore, a tiny hamlet outside of Milan when he was the PM, he was found not guilty of paying witnesses to fabricate information.

In a prior trial, the multibillionaire media magnate was accused of paying for sex with 17-year-old Moroccan nightclub dancer Karima el-Mahroug, also known by her stage as Ruby Rubacuori or Ruby Heartstealer, by bribing 24 people at his parties to testify falsely.

Young women allegedly danced and stripped for Berlusconi at the extravagant sex parties known as “bunga bunga” parties.

Prosecutors named 33 women as having been paid to have sex with the lawmaker. They claimed that these events followed the same pattern, beginning with supper and ended with Berlusconi selecting “one or more women with whom he spent the night in an intimate relationship,” according to The Mirror.

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Tax Frauds

In total, Berlusconi was involved in 35 criminal court proceedings, but he was only ever conclusively found guilty once—in a 2012 tax fraud case involving the sale of movie rights in his commercial empire.

In October 2021, a Milan court condemned him to four years, but later reduced it to one year due to a 2006 amnesty provision intended to lessen jail overcrowding. He would perform part-time community service in an assisted living facility throughout his one-year sentence. He was also prohibited from running for public office for three years by the court.

The former prime minister was charged with using two offshore firms he controlled to purchase US film rights at exorbitant costs.

According to the BBC, the prosecution said that some of the cash declared for the purchase of film rights were improperly siphoned off to establish slush funds, lowering Berlusconi’s Mediaset group’s tax obligations.

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Relationship with minors

His second marriage to former actress Veronica Lario, who left him in 2009 over his “cavorting with minors,” came to an end because of a relationship with another youngster.

When Berlusconi’s wife made her divorce filing announcement in May of that same year, it was claimed that the prime minister at the time had gone to Noemi Letizia’s 18th birthday celebration, an aspiring actress and model. Letizia, who had also applied for a position on one of the politician’s television stations, was never made clear how they were related by the politician.

He married his 32-year-old fiancée Marta Fascina in a strangely staged ceremony in March 2022.

Controversies

On the international stage, Berlusconi was renowned for his ties with leaders such as Vladimir Putin of Russia and Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. After the invasion of Ukraine, he controversially defended the latter. The leader of Italy claimed in September of last year that Putin merely wished to appoint “decent people” to replace Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s administration.

The former Italian prime minister, Berlusconi, once compared a German European MP to a Nazi and called former US president Barack Obama “suntanned” because he had no patience for conventional diplomacy.

He made a “bus full of whores” pledge to the Monza football team’s players in December of last year, which he acquired in 2018 after selling AC Milan.

Mussolini was described as “benign” by him, and he added that the West “should be conscious of the superiority of our civilisation.” The most colorful and divisive politician in recent Italian history was Berlusconi.

Bribes

He is presently accused of buying the girls’ silence so they wouldn’t report the parties to the officials, which would have resulted in his being removed from office and impeached.

Although witnesses have described wild orgies where female visitors dressed as nuns and performed sensual dances for Berlusconi and his friends, the parties were always described by Berlusconi as “innocent and elegant affairs.”