The design duo behind the luxury Italian brand Dolce & Gabbana is suspected of tax evasion relating to fraud amounting to more than a billion dollars, reports FashionMag.
In addition to the founders, Domenico Dolce, 52, and Stefano Gabbana, 48, seven other officials from the company are also facing investigation.
Formal charges have not yet been filed against the designers, however the prosecutor overseeing the case stated that setting up the Gado company in tax-friendly Luxembourg while the firm operated normally in Italy was a tax dodge that defrauded the state.
A favourite of celebrities like Madonna and Kylie Minogue, the company has been under investigation since May 2008 when the two designers were suspected of having set up shell companies. Since the global economic crisis, authorities are attempting to raise revenue by cracking down on widespread tax evasion.
The luxury brand Dolce & Gabbana was founded in 1985. In 2009, it had 116 stores worldwide.