Earlier today, Italian judge Antonella Brambilla found Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana guilty of tax evasion, along with five of their colleagues. The designers have been sentenced to one year and eight months in jail, WWD reports. If this seems harsh, it's still notably shorter than the three-year prison term recommended by the prosecution.
This ruling comes at the end of what seemed like an interminable court battle involving the sale of fashion label Dolce & Gabbana to a Luxembourg-based holding company called Gado, which essentially functioned as a tax shelter. Prosecutors accused the designers and several members of their board of conspiring to avoid taxes they should have paid, as the brand continued to operate in Italy. Earlier charges concerning the company's valuation at the time of its sale to Gado were dismissed.
The designers have repeatedly proclaimed their innocence, previously claiming they just "pretend" the charges "don't exist," and are expected to appeal their prison sentence. (They should be allowed to share a cell, at the very least.)
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