Black, Conrad - Publishing Mogul in Federal Prison
Conrad Black - Media Mogul
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour, PC, OC, KSG (born August 25, 1944) is a Canadian-born former newspaper publisher, an historian, a columnist, a UK peer, and convicted felon for fraud who for a time headed the third-largest newspaper group in the world. Lord Black controlled Hollinger International, Inc that through affiliates published major newspapers including The Daily Telegraph (UK), Chicago Sun Times( U.S.), The Jerusalem Post (Israel), National Post (Canada), The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), and hundreds of community newspapers in North America.
Black is also an author, having written two memoirs (A Life in Progress and A Matter of Principle) and biographies of Maurice Duplessis, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Richard Nixon.
In 2004, a shareholder-initiated prosecution of Black began in the United States. Black has publicly maintained his innocence since the original indictment. He was convicted of three counts of fraud and one count of obstruction of justice in a U.S. court in 2007 and sentenced to six and a half years' imprisonment. Two of the charges were overturned on appeal and in 2011 he was re-sentenced on the one remaining count of mail fraud and on the one count of obstruction of justice to an amended prison term of 42 months and a fine of $125,000. Black was released on May 4, 2012
Fate of Hollinger
The Hollinger group of companies was effectively dismantled as a result of criminal and civil lawsuits in relation to sales of papers and Intellectual property to third parties, most alleging misrepresentation and some alleging false or deliberately misleading accounts having been presented. The costs incurred by Hollinger International through the investigation of Black and his associates climbed to over US $200 million, leading some observers, such as The Economist to suggest disproportionality of these expenses in relation to the allegations. A significant portion of the sums paid by Hollinger International went to Richard Breeden, the lead investigator, who was paid approximately $100,000 per week. Since Black was forced to resign from the board of Hollinger, many of Hollinger International’s assets ended up being sold at prices significantly lower than those contemplated by incomplete talks while Black was with the company. In the early 2000s, Black had accurately anticipated the decline in profitability of print media assets and sought to divest those types of assets held by Hollinger before their value was irrevocably diminished. The main criminal sanction on Black not overturned is specifically one of misleading investors.
Criminal fraud conviction and Supreme Court review
The Supreme Court of the United States heard an appeal of his case on December 8, 2009 and rendered a decision in June 2010. Black's application for bail was rejected by both the Supreme Court and the U.S. District Court judge who sentenced him.
On June 24, 2010, the US Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that the definition of Honest Services Fraud used in the trial judge's charge to the jury in Black's case was too broad In June 2010, "unconstitutionally vague", ruling the law could apply only to cases where bribes and kickbacks had changed hands and ordered the US 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago to review three fraud convictions against Black in light of the Supreme Court's new definition. As ordered the Court reviewed Black's case and determined whether his fraud convictions stood or if there should be a new trial. The Supreme Court upheld the jailed former media baron's obstruction-of-justice conviction, for which he was serving a concurrent 6½-year sentence. Black's lawyers filed an application for bail pending the appeals court's review. Prosecutors contested Black's bail request, arguing in court papers that Black's trial jury had proof that Black committed fraud. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals granted bail on July 19, 2010 under which Black was released pending retrial on a $2 million unsecured bond put up by conservative philanthropist Roger Hertog and ordered to remain on bail in the continental United States until at least August 16, when his bail hearing was to resume, and the date by which Black and the prosecution were ordered by the Court of Appeals to submit written arguments for that court's review of his case.
Until July 21, 2010, Black, Federal Bureau of Prisons #18330-424, was incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution Low, Coleman, FL, a part of the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex.
Following his release, coincidentally on his 18th wedding anniversary, Black wrote a column for Canada's National Post on his time in prison. Black described America's inmates as an "ostracized, voiceless legion of the walking dead." Black was to appear once again in a Chicago court on August 16 to provide full and detailed financial information to the judge, who would then consider his request to be allowed to return to Canada while on bail.In spite of his professed desire to return to his former home in Canada, Black's legal representatives advised the court that they would not provide the requisite accounting and would thus not be interested in petitioning the court further on the matter. Although many have cited this refusal to disclose as more deception on the part of Black,it is possible that the voluminous amounts of information that would have been required for complete disclosure could not be compiled in time or that his wealth would be unlikely to persuade the court to extend his bail conditions. He was under no compulsion to make this disclosure as he had initiated the appeal for a bail variation of his own volition. His next court appearance, where he might reapply for permission to return to Canada was set for September 20, 2010.
On October 28, 2010, the US 7th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned two of the three mail fraud convictions. This left Black convicted of one count of mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice. The court also ruled that he must be re-sentenced.On December 17, 2010, Black lost an appeal as to fact and law on his remaining convictions for fraud and obstruction of justice. The three-person panel did not provide reasons. On May 31, 2011, the Supreme Court of the United States refused to grant Black leave to appeal (to it) his two remaining convictions without comment.
The re-sentencing on the two remaining counts by the original trial judge occurred on June 24, 2011.Black's lawyers recommended that he be sentenced to the 29 months he had already served while the prosecution argued for Black to complete his original 6½ year sentence. The probation officer's report recommended a sentence of between 33 and 41 months. At the hearing, Judge St. Eve re-sentenced Black to a reduced term of 42 months and a fine of $125,000, returning him to prison on September 6, 2011 to serve the remaining 13 months of his sentence.
On June 30, 2011, Black published an article for the National Review Online that provided his scathing view of the legal case, detailing it as a miscarriage of justice and an "unaccountable and often lawless prosecution."
Seth Lipsky, in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal that ran on June 28, 2011, called the verdict against Black "head-scratching," noting that Black was found not guilty of the most serious charges brought against him. Lipsky also raised the issue of why Black was denied a retrial by jury as to whether he had committed pecuniary fraud after the Supreme Court unanimously found that Judge St. Eve's instructions to the jury were "incorrect," which led to two of the three fraud counts ultimately being vacated. In the end, the fraud conviction was allowed to stand and the count of obstruction.
Black did not return to Coleman Federal Correctional Facility because two female guards at Coleman reported they feared for their safety if Black returned. Instead he was imprisoned on September 6, 2011 at the Federal Correctional Institution, Miami. He was released from prison on May 4, 2012. Although he waived Canadian citizenship in 2001 in order to receive a British peerage, he has expressed desire to live in Canada after his prison term completed. He was granted a one-year temporary resident permit to live in Canada in March 2012 when he was still serving his sentence. Critics claimed that Black received special treatment from the Canadian government but Stephen Harper, the Prime Minister, denied any political influence. Upon his release from the prison, Black was immediately picked up by the U.S. Immigration officials and escorted to the Miami International Airport. He arrived at Toronto on the same afternoon and returned to his home for the first time in nearly five years. He has been barred from entering the United States for 30 years.
On June 5, 2012 lawyers for Black moved that the last remaining counts of conviction be vacated due to prosecutorial misconduct and his claim that he had been denied the right to have the defense counsel of his choice. Black's motion was dismissed on February 19, 2013 along with his request for an evidentitary hearing.