Dalliance With 'Ruby' Earns Berlusconi a Place in U.S. Report on Human Trafficking

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been named in the U.S. State Department's Trafficking in Persons 2011 report, for his alleged sexual exploits with an underage girl.

In February 2011, judges set a trial date for Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for the alleged commercial sexual exploitation of a Moroccan child, media reports include indicate evidence of third party involvement in the case, indicating the girl was a victim of trafficking, the State Department report said, according to a UK newspaper, The Telegraph.

The billionaire media mogul's wife left him in 2009 because of his habit of frequenting minors.

Early this year, Italian prosecutors opened an investigation into charges that Berlusconi had paid to have sex with Karima El Mahgroug, a Moroccan night club dancer. It is illegal to pay teenagers for sex in Italy. Berlusconi's trial in the matter of underage prostitution will reopen in Milan in November.

The wiretapped conversations of El Mahgroug, also known as Ruby the heart stealer, had exposed the Prime Minister's liaisons with the girl. The wiretap shows her as denying the sexual escapade with Berlusconi, apparently for financial gains. It lent credibility to allegations that Berlusconi had sex with her when she was a minor.

The conversations reveal that Berlusconi offered her money and other favors in return for keeping the affair under wraps.

He says I'll give you whatever money you want, I'll shower you with gold, but it's important that you hide everything and don't say anything to anyone,' she had said.