Conrad Black get 6 1/2 years
Dec 10, 2007 15:22:08 GMT -5
Post by Disgruntled70sHab on Dec 10, 2007 15:22:08 GMT -5
I'm not totally up on this. I used to be interested until the hockey season started. But, it is now on CNN's front page whereas it took a back seat to Paris Hilton's incarceration a few months back.
Conrad Black sentenced to 6 1/2 years in jail
By Romina Maurino, THE CANADIAN PRESS
2007-12-10 14:54:00
CHICAGO - Conrad Black has been sentenced to six and a half years in jail, must pay a US$125,000 fine and forfeit US$6.1 million for fraud and obstruction of justice.
Standing expressionless before Judge Amy St. Eve in a Chicago courtroom, the former newpaper magnate was told he will serve a total of 78 months in prison and afterwards a two-year period of unsupervised release.
"No-one is above the law in the United States," St. Eves told Black.
I cannot understand how someone of your stature could engage in the conduct you engaged in and put everything at risk," she said.
"But in the United States, Mr. Black, there is equal justice under the law."
Lead prosecutor Eric Sussman asked that Black be taken immediately into custody, his own lawyers responding that Black was neither a danger to society nor at risk of flight.
"He's not one to run and hide. He's not a coward," said lawyer Marc Martin.
St. Eve gave Black 12 weeks to report to a federal prison in Florida, the Eglin Air Force Base facility. He will be required to show up at the low-security facility March 3.
"We have the verdict we have and we can't retry the case," Black told St. Eves in a brief statement before the sentencing.
"I have never once uttered one disrespectful word about this court, your honour, the jurors or the process.
He thanked the judge for her openmindedness, considering that he came in with an "almost universal presumption of guilt." The former newspaper executive also apologized to shareholders of the defunct Hollinger International newspaper group, the company he was convicted of defrauding.
The Black trial was one of the last high-profile fraud cases in which U.S. prosecutors, stocks regulators and others cracked down on white collar crime in the wake of the Enron Corp. scandal that wiped out billions of dollars of stock value about five years ago.
Besides tough new U.S. rules thar required more detailed corporate disclosure to shareholders, U.S. prosecutors also won jail sentences against Martha Stewart, former WorldComm CEO Bernie Ebbers, Adelphia cable group CEO John Rigas and executives of Enron and numerous other companies accused of corporate fraud and wrongdoing.
Earlier Monday, Black had walked into the courthouse confident and smiling in the morning, accompanied by his wife Barbara Amiel Black and daughter Alana Black.
After the sentencing he was still smiling, offering only "No comment," as he left the courtroom with his family.
Earlier in the day, St. Eve made several rulings that were good news for Black and his team, though denied Black's request to delay the sentencing or strike victim impact statements.
First, she said she would use 2000 sentencing guidelines to determine the sentence, a blow to prosecutors, who were pushing for a sentence under the 2007 guidelines - which could have doubled Black's time in jail.
She also dismissed the prosecutor's request to consider the full amount of the alleged fraud - $32 million - instead of the $6.1 million estimated by a pre-sentencing report.
As well, she added, Black's former partner David Radler was offered a plea bargain to testify against Black his deal under the 2000 guidelines, and he is "at least equally culpable as Mr. Black."
Radler has agreed to go to jail for 29 months and pay a fine and will be officially sentenced next week.
St. Eve dismissed a government's request to consider Black the ringleader of the fraud scheme, saying that "the evidence at trial demonstrates his co-defendant Radler was calling just as many shots in directing, in many instances, where the money was going."
She also noted it was Radler who was in charge of the running media company Hollinger's U.S. operations and ordering the money.
But, she said, she wouldn't consider Black a minor player either, saying that request hardly passed "the straight-face test."
Jeffrey Steinback, Black's chief sentencing counsel, told court that Black is a respected historian and loving father fighting for his soul, whose lack of remorse stems from his heartfelt belief that he did nothing wrong.
Black, he said, is not the bank robber prosecutors claimed but an entrepreneur, writer and devoted husband.
"No bank robber has ever personally built the bank that he robbed," Steinback said, referring to the Black's former Hollinger International media empire, which once controlled a chain of big-city Canadian dailies, the National Post, the London Telegraph and the Jerusalem Post, as well as the Chicago Sun-Times and hundreds of smaller publications.
"Nobody can seriously contend that Conrad would do anything to cause that company distress."
Steinback said giving a harsh sentence to a 63-year-old would be the equivalent of a life sentence - not reasonable "within the circumstances of this man's life."
Black, he said, has been misjudged because of his public persona and treated as a caricature rather than a human being.
An unwillingness to see Black's human side led, in part, to the obstruction of justice charge, he added.
Black "in his heart" believes he did nothing wrong when he removed boxes from his Toronto office because he was simply taking home the "lifetime of memories" the offices held.
After paraphrasing from Shakespeare's seminal legal drama "The Merchant of Venice," Steinback added: "If you cut him, I assure you he will bleed."
"He seems to be fighting for his soul."
Lead prosecutor Eric Sussman said regardless of defence contentions that Black would not have pocketed money from his own company, the convictions prove otherwise.
"What brought him here today is his own greed and his own disdain for the rule of law," Sussman told court.
It's a mistake to interpret Black's brazen assertions of innocence outside court and rejection of the verdict as righteous outbursts, Sussman said, adding that Black's attitude "goes beyond defiance."
"It's the next step - it's disrespect for the system."
He urged St. Eve to use the sentencing as a message to other executives who would choose their own well-being above that of their shareholders.
"How can a prison sentence deter a man who openly boasts that prison would be a bore?"
Black was convicted of paying himself millions of dollars in corporate money and disguising the money as stemming from payments made in conjunction with the sale of Hollinger assets. He plans to appeal.
The jury acquitted him of nine other charges ranging from racketeering to tax fraud. Former Hollinger executives Peter Atkinson, Jack Boultbee and Mark Kipnis were also convicted of mail fraud.
Eugene Fox, a managing partner at Cardinal Capital Corp., said in a victim impact statement that as an institutional shareholder of Hollinger stock, he was called an "idiot" and lied to "repeatedly and openly."
"We trusted these individuals with the retirement savings of our clients," Fox said.
"These men were concerned only with their own social desires and private ambitions."
Meanwhile, the Ontario Securities Commission said Monday that a hearing involving Black previously set for Tuesday has been put off until at least Jan. 8.
The OSC action against Black, Toronto holding company Hollinger Inc., and associates David Radler, Jack Boutbee and Peter Atkinson alleges diversion of up to C$89.7 million along with incomplete and misleading disclosure. The Ontario commission's action dates back to March 2005 but was put off during the U.S. criminal proceedings.
money.canoe.ca/News/Sectors/Entertainment/2007/12/10/4717008-cp.html
Conrad Black sentenced to 6 1/2 years in jail
By Romina Maurino, THE CANADIAN PRESS
2007-12-10 14:54:00
CHICAGO - Conrad Black has been sentenced to six and a half years in jail, must pay a US$125,000 fine and forfeit US$6.1 million for fraud and obstruction of justice.
Standing expressionless before Judge Amy St. Eve in a Chicago courtroom, the former newpaper magnate was told he will serve a total of 78 months in prison and afterwards a two-year period of unsupervised release.
"No-one is above the law in the United States," St. Eves told Black.
I cannot understand how someone of your stature could engage in the conduct you engaged in and put everything at risk," she said.
"But in the United States, Mr. Black, there is equal justice under the law."
Lead prosecutor Eric Sussman asked that Black be taken immediately into custody, his own lawyers responding that Black was neither a danger to society nor at risk of flight.
"He's not one to run and hide. He's not a coward," said lawyer Marc Martin.
St. Eve gave Black 12 weeks to report to a federal prison in Florida, the Eglin Air Force Base facility. He will be required to show up at the low-security facility March 3.
"We have the verdict we have and we can't retry the case," Black told St. Eves in a brief statement before the sentencing.
"I have never once uttered one disrespectful word about this court, your honour, the jurors or the process.
He thanked the judge for her openmindedness, considering that he came in with an "almost universal presumption of guilt." The former newspaper executive also apologized to shareholders of the defunct Hollinger International newspaper group, the company he was convicted of defrauding.
The Black trial was one of the last high-profile fraud cases in which U.S. prosecutors, stocks regulators and others cracked down on white collar crime in the wake of the Enron Corp. scandal that wiped out billions of dollars of stock value about five years ago.
Besides tough new U.S. rules thar required more detailed corporate disclosure to shareholders, U.S. prosecutors also won jail sentences against Martha Stewart, former WorldComm CEO Bernie Ebbers, Adelphia cable group CEO John Rigas and executives of Enron and numerous other companies accused of corporate fraud and wrongdoing.
Earlier Monday, Black had walked into the courthouse confident and smiling in the morning, accompanied by his wife Barbara Amiel Black and daughter Alana Black.
After the sentencing he was still smiling, offering only "No comment," as he left the courtroom with his family.
Earlier in the day, St. Eve made several rulings that were good news for Black and his team, though denied Black's request to delay the sentencing or strike victim impact statements.
First, she said she would use 2000 sentencing guidelines to determine the sentence, a blow to prosecutors, who were pushing for a sentence under the 2007 guidelines - which could have doubled Black's time in jail.
She also dismissed the prosecutor's request to consider the full amount of the alleged fraud - $32 million - instead of the $6.1 million estimated by a pre-sentencing report.
As well, she added, Black's former partner David Radler was offered a plea bargain to testify against Black his deal under the 2000 guidelines, and he is "at least equally culpable as Mr. Black."
Radler has agreed to go to jail for 29 months and pay a fine and will be officially sentenced next week.
St. Eve dismissed a government's request to consider Black the ringleader of the fraud scheme, saying that "the evidence at trial demonstrates his co-defendant Radler was calling just as many shots in directing, in many instances, where the money was going."
She also noted it was Radler who was in charge of the running media company Hollinger's U.S. operations and ordering the money.
But, she said, she wouldn't consider Black a minor player either, saying that request hardly passed "the straight-face test."
Jeffrey Steinback, Black's chief sentencing counsel, told court that Black is a respected historian and loving father fighting for his soul, whose lack of remorse stems from his heartfelt belief that he did nothing wrong.
Black, he said, is not the bank robber prosecutors claimed but an entrepreneur, writer and devoted husband.
"No bank robber has ever personally built the bank that he robbed," Steinback said, referring to the Black's former Hollinger International media empire, which once controlled a chain of big-city Canadian dailies, the National Post, the London Telegraph and the Jerusalem Post, as well as the Chicago Sun-Times and hundreds of smaller publications.
"Nobody can seriously contend that Conrad would do anything to cause that company distress."
Steinback said giving a harsh sentence to a 63-year-old would be the equivalent of a life sentence - not reasonable "within the circumstances of this man's life."
Black, he said, has been misjudged because of his public persona and treated as a caricature rather than a human being.
An unwillingness to see Black's human side led, in part, to the obstruction of justice charge, he added.
Black "in his heart" believes he did nothing wrong when he removed boxes from his Toronto office because he was simply taking home the "lifetime of memories" the offices held.
After paraphrasing from Shakespeare's seminal legal drama "The Merchant of Venice," Steinback added: "If you cut him, I assure you he will bleed."
"He seems to be fighting for his soul."
Lead prosecutor Eric Sussman said regardless of defence contentions that Black would not have pocketed money from his own company, the convictions prove otherwise.
"What brought him here today is his own greed and his own disdain for the rule of law," Sussman told court.
It's a mistake to interpret Black's brazen assertions of innocence outside court and rejection of the verdict as righteous outbursts, Sussman said, adding that Black's attitude "goes beyond defiance."
"It's the next step - it's disrespect for the system."
He urged St. Eve to use the sentencing as a message to other executives who would choose their own well-being above that of their shareholders.
"How can a prison sentence deter a man who openly boasts that prison would be a bore?"
Black was convicted of paying himself millions of dollars in corporate money and disguising the money as stemming from payments made in conjunction with the sale of Hollinger assets. He plans to appeal.
The jury acquitted him of nine other charges ranging from racketeering to tax fraud. Former Hollinger executives Peter Atkinson, Jack Boultbee and Mark Kipnis were also convicted of mail fraud.
Eugene Fox, a managing partner at Cardinal Capital Corp., said in a victim impact statement that as an institutional shareholder of Hollinger stock, he was called an "idiot" and lied to "repeatedly and openly."
"We trusted these individuals with the retirement savings of our clients," Fox said.
"These men were concerned only with their own social desires and private ambitions."
Meanwhile, the Ontario Securities Commission said Monday that a hearing involving Black previously set for Tuesday has been put off until at least Jan. 8.
The OSC action against Black, Toronto holding company Hollinger Inc., and associates David Radler, Jack Boutbee and Peter Atkinson alleges diversion of up to C$89.7 million along with incomplete and misleading disclosure. The Ontario commission's action dates back to March 2005 but was put off during the U.S. criminal proceedings.
money.canoe.ca/News/Sectors/Entertainment/2007/12/10/4717008-cp.html
