REUTERS ROME FORMER Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is facing a new investigation by magistrates looking into his relationship with a man who is charged with procuring commercial sex workers, a justice system official said on Thursday.

The official, who declined to be identified, said magistrates in the southern city of Bari had extended an existing investigation into local businessman Gianpaolo Tarantini to include Berlusconi. Magistrates have accused Tarantini of giving false testimony and holding information from them during an investigation concerning the suspected procurement of prostitutes for parties at the former prime minister’s residences. They want to determine if Tarantini made the allegedly false declarations at Berlusconi’s behest.

Berlusconi’s lawyer Niccolo Ghedini said he had not yet received any formal notification that his client was under investigation in Bari.

Leading Italian newspapers, including Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica, said the magistrates suspect Berlusconi may have paid hundreds of thousands of euros to Tarantini to withhold evidence.

Berlusconi has always maintained that parties at his homes were respectable, that he has never paid for sex with a woman and that he did not know women taking part in his parties were sex workers.