A Milan appeals court upheld a verdict issued in June, ruling Dolce & Gabbana designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana guilty of tax evasion on Wednesday, April 30. The fashion designers failed to pay taxes on €1 billion worth of income.

Founders of the world-famous Italian luxury fashion house, Dolce and Gabbana have been under scrutiny since selling their namesake and D&G brands to Luxembourg holding company Gado in 2004. According to Vogue U.K., Italian authorities viewed the sale as a way to avoid Italy’s high taxes.

At the time, Italy was experiencing the longest recession since World War II. Yet, Dolce & Gabbana and the fashion sector were performing well, prompting the Italian law enforcement agency, Guardia di Finanza, to begin their investigation four years later.

Their efforts resulted in the June 2013 trial where the former life partners were found guilty on two counts with the one involving the valuation of their company and tax rate paid cleared at an earlier date.

The designers denied the accusation. Since then, their lawyer Massimo Dinoia attempted to appeal their case. Meanwhile in March, Gaetano Santamaria, a Milan prosecutor, requested Dolce and Gabbana to be acquitted.

While Dolce and Gabbana lost their appeal against the tax fraud conviction, they were given a reduced sentence—from the original 20 months to 18—due to a statute of limitations, which applied to certain facts in the case. Apparently, Dinoia will be appealing the case for the second time to Italy’s Supreme Court.

“I am speechless and astounded, this sentence is inexplicable. After all, the general prosecutor already realized there was really nothing. We will surely present our appeal to the Corte di Cassazione. This is an unfair verdict and we are sure the Cassazione will reform it,” said Dinoia.

Dolce & Gabbana isn’t the first Italian fashion company forced to pay its taxes. Just last month, Giorgio Armani paid €270 million to settle a dispute over payments from the group’s subsidiaries abroad and Prada Holding, which owns Prada, paid up to €420 million to settle taxes in December.