MOSCOW, May 30 (RAPSI) - Milan prosecutors on Wednesday asked the court to sentence Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, who have been found guilty of tax evasion, to two and a half years in prison each, Reuters reports.

The Italian tax and judicial authorities have been investigating the founders of the Dolce&Gabbana trademark over the past few years.

According to investigators, the fashion house's managers have been distorting their financial reports and falsifying their tax declarations since 2004, when Dolce & Gabbana Luxemburg sarl and Gado sarl were established in Luxembourg, allegedly to escape a tax bill of up to EUR 1 billion.

In April 2011, Judge Simone Luerti dismissed the charges as unsubstantiated. But in November 2011 the Supreme Court of Cassation overturned the ruling and ordered a retrial.

In late March the Milan Court of Appeals found the fashion designers guilty of EUR 1 billion tax evasion and fined them EUR 343 million.