Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana have officially filed an appeal of their tax evasion conviction.
Both men were sentenced in June to one year and eight months each in prison after being found guilty of contributing to tax declaration omissions in the 2004 sale of some of their clothing lines to Gado, a Luxembourg-based holding company.
The sale, argued prosecutors, allowed Dolce & Gabbana, as their brand is known, to avoid Italy's high rate by paying a lower tax in Luxembourg.
D&G have consistently denied the charges.
Their 90-page appeal document, filed this week at Milan's courthouse, seeks a full acquittal of the tax charges.
The prime appeals argument is that the two designers "never managed, actually or legally," the Luxembourg-based holding company. The trial judge had considered Gado a legal entity used to avoid Italian taxes on royalties of about 1 billion euros, $1.3 billion U.S.
Enough cash for advertising: Dolce and Gabbana also have said that they cannot afford to pay the back taxes that Italy contends they owe. Shortly after their convictions, they briefly shuttered their boutiques, posting "Closed Out Of Indignation" signs on the doors.
For now, however, D&G apparently have enough money to hire Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese to direct Matthew McConaughey and Scarlett Johansson in an arty, black-and-white promotional video for their new fragrance.
This is the director's cut of "Street of Dreams." The shorter version's 3.2 million views placed it atop this week's VideoWatch/VidIQ branded video rankings.
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