Italian billionaire and Formula 1 manager Flavio Briatore appeared in court on Friday as a witness in a corruption trial involving former premier Silvio Berlusconi and British lawyer David Mills.
In the trial Mills is accused of accepting $600,000 from Berlusconi as payment for not revealing details of Berlusconi's media empire in two trials against the ex-premier in 1997 and 1998.
Briatore was called to clarify statements made by Mills to justify the 600,000 dollars that, according to prosecutors, the lawyer received from Berlusconi in order to be reticent.
According to prosecutors, a company set up for Briatore by Mills in 1997 was part of the chain of money transfers through which the 600,000 dollars reached Mills.
The Italian billionaire said he knew nothing about this and other transfers involving the company, called Struie.
"I have never been in business with David Mills. Lawyers do what businessmen tell them to do. David carried out the orders that I gave him," he said.
Leaving the courtroom, Briatore said: "I don't think I have anything to do with this trial".
Berlusconi and Mills deny wrongdoing, insisting that Mills received the money in question from Neapolitan shipping magnate Diego Attanasio.
The Berlusconi-Mills case has received scant attention in the Italian media but has made big waves in Britain. This is because Mills is the estranged husband of Britain's Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell.
Jowell was accused - and subsequently cleared - of breaching parliamentary standards by co-signing a mortgage with Mills allegedly linked to the 600,000 dollars.
Mills, who separated from his wife under the media glare on the case, said in a letter sent to his accountant in 2004 that the payment was a "gift" and that he had saved Berlusconi "from a great deal of trouble".
"I told no lies but I turned some very tricky corners," the letter said. He has since disowned that letter and insists the payment came from Attanasio.
Berlusconi and Mills are also co-defendants in a related trial focusing on alleged fraud at Berlusconi's private TV network company Mediaset.
They deny wrongdoing in this trial also.
