From the 1970s he built up a media-based business empire that came to dominate Italian television and made him Italy’s wealthiest person. He entered politics in 1993 with the foundation of the conservative populist Forza Italia party and became Prime Minister following the 1994 elections. However, his coalition collapsed after only seven months. Berlusconi remained the leading figure on the right wing of Italian politics for the rest of the 1990s but was increasingly dogged by accusations of corruption. Although convicted on several occasions, he managed to avoid imprisonment. Re-elected in 2001, he became the first Italian Prime Minister since World War II to serve an entire parliamentary term, until he was narrowly defeated in the 2006 elections. This government undertook an ambitious programme of liberalizing economic reform—which was largely unsuccessful—and strongly supported the US war on terrorism and the Iraq War of 2003. Berlusconi’s third term as Prime Minister was overshadowed by conflict with the courts over corruption charges and by allegations of sexual misconduct; and in 2011 a growing financial crisis (see eurozone crisis) led to his resignation. In 2012 he was convicted of tax fraud and barred from public office. He was acquitted on appeal of sexual misconduct in 2015 and his ban on holding public office ended.