Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have been found guilty of tax evasion and fined €343million. The Milan Courts of Appeal ruled that the fashion designers had failed to pay around €1billion in taxes and ordered them to pay the substantial fine on Saturday.The Italian authorities have been investigating the founders of the globally famous Dolce & Gabbana label for the past few years.
In 2007, charges were brought against the designers, and five other individuals, after their two brands, Dolce & Gabbana and D&G, were sold to their Luxemburg-based company, Gado Srl.
The Guardia di Finanza believed that Gado was a legal body set up to enable the pair to avoid the country's high corporate taxes. It meant that profits from the two labels were taxed abroad and not in Italy, where authorities believed Dolce & Gabbana and D&G were still being managed from.
In April 2011, Judge Simone Luerto dismissed charges against them as unsubstantiated. But in November 2011, the Supreme Court of Cassation overturned the ruling and ordered a retrial saying, "tax avoidance, or tax mitigation on an earnings declaration is a criminal offense under the law".