Silvio Berlusconi's lawyers dismiss claims he was filmed having sex with prostitutes He recruited the women just as he had done when the prime minister visited Brazil. It was claimed in 2010 that Mr Berlusconi hired six lap dancers to entertain him in his Sao Paulo hotel during a trip to the South American country that year. The women were reportedly paid around £900 and promised jobs as showgirls and starlets on Italian television channels he owns. At the time, the prime minister's office admitted that he had been entertained by a group of performers, but classified the show as a "typically Brazilian folklore spectacle." Mr Berlusconi was forced to resign in late 2011 amid Italy's worsening recession and credit crisis. Mr Lavitola, the former editor of an Italian newspaper called Avanti! (Onward), was arrested on Friday on suspicion of extortion and bribery in relation to a hospital construction project in Panama, where he spent lengthy periods of time before returning to Italy last year. In March he was convicted of trying to blackmail Mr Berlusconi in return for covering up payments that were allegedly paid to escort girls to take part in the then prime minister's "bunga bunga" parties. He was sentenced to prison for two years and eight month but last month it was halved on appeal. He is due to be questioned on the latest allegations in a Naples prison on Monday. Mr Berlusconi's legal team said the sex tape claims were baseless. Niccolo Ghedini, one of his lawyers, denied that Mr Berlusconi had hired prostitutes, either in Panama or Brazil. "The claims are without any foundation," he said. There were no encounters (with call-girls) and so this alleged video cannot exist. These are claims based on pure fantasy. Mr Berlusconi has been dogged by "bunga bunga" sex scandals ever since his Veronica Lario, his wife of 20 years and the mother of three of his children, announced in 2009 that she intended to divorce him. In June he was handed a seven year prison sentence after being found guilty of abusing his office and paying for sex with an under age prostitute, a teenage erotic dancer known by her stage name as Ruby the Heart Stealer. He is appealing the conviction. Last month, after a 20 year career in parliament, he was stripped of his seat in the Senate as a result of an August conviction for tax fraud involving his Mediaset company. Despite all the sex scandals and court cases, Mr Berlusconi has insisted he will remain in the front-line of politics and recently relaunched Forza Italia, the party he founded two decades ago.