Flavio Briatore

Flavio Briatore (born 12 April 1950) is an Italian businessman.

He started his career as a restaurant manager and insurance salesman in Italy.

In the 1970s, he moved to Cuneo and became an assistant to businessman Attilio Dutto, owner of the Paramatti Vernici paint company.

Dutto was killed on 21 March 1979 in a car bomb attack by an unknown perpetrator.

Briatore moved to Milan and worked for Finanziaria Generale Italia at the Italian stock exchange.

During this period, he met Luciano Benetton, founder of the Benetton clothing company.

When Benetton opened his first five stores in the United States in 1979, he appointed Briatore as director of the group's American operations.

Briatore was convicted in Italy on several fraud charges in the 1980s, receiving two prison sentences, though the convictions were later extinguished by an amnesty.

Briatore set up a number of successful Benetton franchises as a fugitive in the Virgin Islands and the United States.

Briatore was convicted of multiple counts of fraud in the 1980s, receiving two prison sentences.

In 1984, a court in Bergamo found him guilty of various counts of fraud and he was fined and sentenced to one year and six months in prison.

In 1986, in Milan, Briatore was sentenced to three years for fraud and conspiracy for his role in a team of confidence tricksters who, over a number of years, set up rigged gambling games using fake playing cards.

The judges described these as elaborate confidence tricks, in which victims were invited to dinner and then "ensnared" in rigged games that involved a cast of fictional characters and realised enormous profits for their perpetrators.

After an appeal in 1987, the sentence was reduced to one year and two months.

To avoid imprisonment, Briatore lived as a fugitive in Saint Thomas, Virgin Islands.

He never went to prison and returned to the EU after both convictions were extinguished by amnesty.

The sentence was subsequently reduced to one year by a court of appeal in 1988.

Thanks to Benetton's methods of franchising, the chain experienced a brief boom in popularity in the US, where, by 1989, there were 800 Benetton stores.

Briatore, having taken a cut of each franchising agreement, became very wealthy.

As store owners began to complain of competition from other Benetton stores, the number of stores decreased to 200 and Briatore began to look for a new business.

In 1990, he was promoted by Luciano Benetton to manage the Benetton Formula One racing team, which became Renault F1 in 2002.

In 1994 Briatore rejected Umberto Agnelli's proposal to move to Ferrari.

During the season, Briatore's Benetton team came under allegations of cheating, resulting in fines and a two-race ban for Schumacher.

Late in, Briatore purchased the ailing Ligier team thereby acquiring its Renault engine supply.

He passed operational management of Ligier to Tom Walkinshaw and took on complete management of Benetton.

The Benetton team won the World Constructors' Championship in 1995.

In 1999, the Corriere della Sera wrongfully reported that he had been arrested in Nairobi on suspicion of fraud relating to real estate in Kenya, but further to a libel claim brought by Briatore against the newspaper, this allegation proved to be untrue and Briatore was compensated.

Briatore attended his first Formula One race, the Australian Grand Prix, in, having in the past proclaimed his lack of interest in the sport.

Luciano Benetton appointed him commercial director of his Formula One team, Benetton Formula Ltd. (formerly Toleman), and when he fired the team management shortly thereafter, Briatore was promoted to managing director and set about turning Benetton into a competitive team.

He hired and quickly fired engineer John Barnard and lured young driver Michael Schumacher from the Jordan team after his first F1 race in.

The Times observed that Briatore knew Schumacher could be the best and built a team around him at Benetton Schumacher went on to win at Spa in and again at Estoril in before claiming the World Drivers' Championship in and.

From 2007 to 2011, he was part-owner and chairman of London's Queens Park Rangers F.C. In September 2009, Briatore was forced to resign from the ING Renault F1 team due to his involvement in race fixing at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

After the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) conducted its own investigation, Briatore was banned indefinitely from any events sanctioned by the FIA, although this ban was later overturned by a French Tribunal de Grande Instance.

Briatore was born in Verzuolo near Cuneo in the Maritime Alps to a family of elementary school teachers.

After twice failing public (state) school, he attended a private (independent) school, receiving a diploma with the lowest grades in Land Surveying at Fassino di Busca high school.

Briatore found early work as a ski instructor and restaurant manager.

He opened a restaurant named Tribüla, which was Briatore's nickname.

The restaurant was unsuccessful and had to close due to excessive debt.

In 2010, a Turin court ordered Briatore rehabilitated, which by Italian Criminal Code results in the extinction "of any criminal effect of the conviction".

During Briatore's fugitive status, he maintained close relations with Benetton and opened some Benetton stores in the Virgin Islands.