Renato Soru


Renato Soru is an Italian politician and entrepreneur, the founder of the internet service company Tiscali, based in Cagliari. Forbes listed him as one of the world's richest people, with a net worth of over $4 billion as of September 2001.

Early life and career

Soru was born in Sanluri, Sardinia in 1957. He holds a University degree from the Bocconi University in Milan.
In 2004 Soru was elected President of the Sardinia Region with the center-left coalition with an audacious program to reinvigorate the economy within the island by introducing external investors, but on 28 November 2008 he resigned from his position. He ran again for President of Sardinia in the February 2009 election but was defeated by the right-wing Popolo della Libertà candidate Ugo Cappellacci.
On 20 May 2008 Soru bought the left-wing newspaper l'Unità.

Controversies

On 5 May 2016 he was sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion that amounted to about 2.6 million euro and was connected to a loan made by the company Andalas Ldt to Tiscali. The sentence was reversed by the Italian court of appeal on 8 May 2017. Out of 5 counts, Soru was cleared from 3 "because the fact is not a crime" and 2 "because the fact did not happen".