For many years it was falsely told that: "In the presence of Antimafia judge Giovanni Falcone he (Cuffaro) accused the Sicilian prosecutors of manipulating state witnesses (pentiti).

Cuffaro was elected as part of Silvio Berlusconi's sensational clean sweep of the island when his coalition won all 61 of its parliamentary seats.

[2][12] Cuffaro and the Italian Minister of Justice, Clemente Mastella were involved in a scandal when it was found that they had been best men of Francesco Campanella, a former member of the Mafia and town councillor of Villabate, who helped the boss Bernardo Provenzano during his absconding.

In 2001 Campanella used his official position to supply Cosa Nostra's top "godfather" with an identity card so he could travel abroad for medical treatment.

[13] In the year 2005, he was the object of media attention thanks to the television reportage La Mafia è Bianca (The Mafia is White) by investigative journalists Stefano Maria Bianchi and Alberto Nerazzini, which aimed to expose rife corruption in the Sicilian Health service and shows a clip of police film footage of Cuffaro meeting with a known mafioso.

[14] Following later investigations and trial Cuffaro has been jailed for seven years after losing a final appeal against a mafia conviction and being banned for life from holding public office.

[15] On 15 October 2007, assistant public prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone requested eight years' imprisonment for Cuffaro charged with aiding and abetting Cosa Nostra and passing confidential information about the trial to the so-called moles in the Palermo Antimafia directorate.

Cuffaro was not found guilty of outright collusion with Cosa Nostra but the court concluded he acted in favour of several people sentenced for Mafia crimes and committed breaches of confidentiality.

"I knew I didn't do anything to willfully help the Mafia and tomorrow morning I intend to be back at my desk," Cuffaro said after the court adjourned.

The head of Italy's politically influential industrial lobby, Confindustria, lamented that Cuffaro remained in office while Sicilian businessmen were defying the Mafia by increasingly refusing to pay systematic "protection" money.

[25] On 23 January 2010 the Palermo Appeals Court confirmed his two previous convictions and added the aggravation of favouring the Mafia, sentencing him to seven years in prison.

[27] On 22 January 2011, the Italian Supreme Court definitively confirmed the seven-year prison sentence and the perpetual ban from holding public office.