The hearings mark the latest in more than a decade of legal battles for Berlusconi and comes just a month after he was acquitted in a separate graft case.
If charged, the media tycoon-turned-politician could find himself on trial during what is likely to be a close-fought general election next April.
None of the accused is expected to be present at Friday's hearing, which follows a four-year investigation by Milan prosecutors into claims of embezzlement, false accounting, tax fraud and money laundering in a disputed television rights deal. Berlusconi, corporate lawyer David Mills, who is the husband of British Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, and all others involved in the case have denied wrongdoing.
Prosecutors believe a US company sold television and cinema rights to two offshore units owned by a Berlusconi family holding company, Fininvest.
The offshore firms then inflated the prices and rights and sold them on to Mediaset, which is controlled by Fininvest, to avoid Italian taxes and create a slush fund for Berlusconi and his family, prosecutors say.
The investigation, which also includes Mediaset Chairman Fedele Confalonieri, covered deals worth 470 million euros carried out between 1994 and 1999.
Corriere della Sera reported on Thursday that prosecutors had this week frozen some 100 million euros in Swiss accounts of one of the accused, producer Farouk Agama, in the largest international seizure to date by Italian authorities.
Berlusconi, who created Italy's largest media empire, has been tried on at least seven occasions for graft. He has never received a definitive guilty verdict, winning acquittals in some cases thanks to the statute of limitations rule.
Berlusconi accuses prosecutors of leading a politically motivated witchhunt against him and his family.
His children, Mediaset Deputy Chairman Piersilvio Berlusconi and Fininvest Chairman Marina Berlusconi, were removed from the main case earlier this year but are still under investigation.
The most serious crime of those contested on Friday is money laundering, which carries a possible sentence of 4 to 12 years. For Berlusconi, the most serious crime is tax fraud, which carries a sentence of up to 6 years.
On Wednesday, judicial sources said defence lawyers would ask for the trial to be moved to the northern town of Brescia - a move which could delay proceedings by months - because 62 Milan-based magistrates had invested in Mediaset stock.
Judge Fabio Paparella will examine the request on Friday.