Swiss billionaire gets 18 years jail for Italian asbestos deaths

MILAN (Reuters) – A billionaire Swiss industrialist convicted for his part in Italy’s biggest asbestos scandal had his jail sentence lengthened to 18 years on Monday, in a ruling campaigners said would set a precedent for work-safety lawsuits. Stephan Schmidheiny, found guilty of negligence that led to more than 2,000 asbestos-related deaths, was also ordered to pay millions of euros in damages to local authorities, victims and their families by an appeals court in Turin. …