(FORTUNE Magazine) – April was a big month for prosecutors catching up with some of the biggest financial scandals of the 1980s. In Milan a court convicted billionaire financier and Olivetti Chief Executive Carlo De Benedetti, 57, of being an accessory in 1982's collapse of Banco Ambrosiano, which had links to the Vatican and P-2, an outlawed Masonic lodge. De Benedetti drew six years and four months in prison. He may not see any time behind bars, however. His appeal could take years and possibly take him past the statute of limitations. The same month saw self-crowned hotel queen Leona Helmsley, 71, begin her four-year sentence for tax evasion. And Charles Keating Jr., 68, former CEO of American Continental Corp., owner of Lincoln Savings & Loan, began a ten-year stretch for defrauding the thrift's customers and faces more charges this summer. The final bailout for one of the biggest S&L disasters could cost $2.6 billion. Still serving time: junk bond king Michael Milken, 45, who has nine years to go on his ten-year sentence for securities fraud. Britain's Ernest Saunders, 56, the former Guinness chairman found guilty in a share-boosting scheme, is out -- early. Sentenced to five years, Saunders was paroled after serving ten months. Reason: pre-senile dementia. He reportedly blames prison-prescribed antidepressants for the problem and now claims to be feeling ''much better.''