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rayfish
LoopKicker
Joined: June 11, 2006
Posts: 985
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 Posted:
July 15, 2007 - 08:15 AM |
 
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| Post subject: Conrad Black Found Guilty |
Conrad Black found guilty on 4 counts
By Richard Siklos
Published: July 13, 2007
NEW YORK: Conrad Black, the gregarious press mogul also known as Lord Black of Crossharbour, was found guilty Friday by a Chicago jury of three counts of mail fraud and one count of obstruction. The British national could face up to 35 years in a U.S. prison.
Black was cleared of nine other counts against him, including racketeering. He is expected to appeal and the judge, Amy St. Eve, is expected to allow him to remain free on bail during that process.
"This verdict is bad news for Conrad Black. Although it has the appearance of being a split decision, Black was convicted of both fraud and obstruction of justice," said Orin Snyder, a former prosecutor and current vice chairman of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher's crisis management practice group, according to Reuters.
"These are very serious crimes that carry very significant jail time and millions of dollars in fines," he said. "The jury seems to have resolved whatever differences it had by acquitting Black on the remaining charges. But the conviction on the four charges is real a victory for the government."
The verdict came nearly four months after Black and three former associates went on trial together after being charged in 2005 with looting the company of more than $80 million.
At the trial, the amount was reduced to $60 million that, the prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald maintained, was the property of Hollinger International, the Chicago-based company Black led.
Through Hollinger International, Black once commanded a far-flung media empire that included The Daily Telegraph, The Jerusalem Post and The Chicago Sun-Times, as well as scores of local community papers.
At the conclusion of the trial, the jury was asked to rule on numerous counts of mail and wire fraud, tax fraud, obstruction of justice and racketeering against Black. Also charged with various counts of mail and tax fraud were Hollinger's former chief financial officer, John Boultbee; a former vice president, Peter Atkinson; and a former Hollinger lawyer, Mark Kipnis.
F. David Radler, who was Black's business partner for more than 30 years, pleaded guilty to a single fraud charge and was a key witness for the government, though prosecutors tried to play down his prominence in the case during their closings. If the court were to approve his deal with prosecutors, Radler could spend as little as six months in a Canadian facility.
Separately, he agreed to pay close to $100 million to settle various civil and Securities and Exchange Commission actions stemming from the fraud.
The SEC case grew out of a an internal investigation at Hollinger that ousted Black and Radler as the top executives in 2003 and spawned the criminal investigation.
In addition to his potential incarceration, Black also faces more than $1 billion in civil litigation from former shareholders of Hollinger International, the company itself and the SEC.
At the heart of the case were so-called noncompete payments, in which Black, Radler and the others were accused of lining their pockets with nearly $60 million to, in effect, not compete with themselves in markets where papers were being bought or sold.
The transactions in question took place between 1998 and 2001, when, under financial pressure, Hollinger International decided to sell most of its newspaper holdings including its U.S. community newspapers and the largest chain of daily newspapers in Canada and The National Post, a paper Black had proudly founded in 1998.
The money, according to the government, rightfully belonged to the shareholders of Hollinger and amounted to illegal bonuses. Separate charges against Black alone accused him of improperly using company coffers to subsidize his lavish lifestyle.
Days of testimony dissected his purchase of a Park Avenue apartment from the company, a trip on the company Gulfstream to Bora Bora for vacation, and a birthday party he threw for his wife, Barbara Amiel, at a posh New York restaurant in December 2000.
Black did not testify in his own defense, nor did the other defendants. Rather, through his attorney, Black argued that he had done nothing wrong and had been the victim of a betrayal by Radler and former directors. |
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wolfy
Fire-eater
Joined: Sep 13, 2004
Posts: 2510
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July 15, 2007 - 09:31 AM |
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He's brought all of this on himself and deserves everything he gets. He should never have renounced his Canadian citizenship because it looks likely now that'll he'll have to do his time in a British or American gaol. Bitter pill to swallow. |
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Good old English spirit! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MG27BKwjaI |
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