Good Day Readers:Northern Illinois District Judge Amy St. Eve who today sent Conrad Black back to jail would seem to suggest she was of the view he needed more "instruction" in ego management and the handling of a Napoleonic complex. We applaud her decision. Our only concern is he not be given a cell next to Whitey Bulger in the special senior citizens' wing of a correctional facility. Such could prove injurous to his health.
The question now becomes should he be allowed to keep his Officer of the Order of Canada awarded in 1990. He would not be the first to have it revoked there have been 4-others - remember high flying Alan ("The Eagle") Eagleson? Currently, Lord Black is on shaky ground along with Garth Drabinsky former Chief Executive Officer of Livenet (Live Entertainment Corporation of Canada) who in March of 2009, along with partner Myron Gottlieb, were each given 7-years (1-count forgery 2-counts fraud) by an Ontario Superior Court Justice for their role in a creative accounting scheme that took place between 1993-1998.
Hopefully, Prime Minister Harper will have the presence of mind not to appoint him to the Senate as a Conservative once he's out.
Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk
BTW, Conrad Black founded the National Post which is why we chose it as our source.
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Conrad Black, former chairman of Hollinger International Inc., right, arrives with his wife Barbara Amiel at the Dirksen Federal Courthouse for a resentencing hearing in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. on Friday, June, 24, 2011Sarah Boesveld
June 24, 2011
Former media baron Conrad Black has been resentenced to 42 months, meaning that he could serve up to 13 months more in prison.
The verdict, which also ordered Lord Black pay a $125,000 fine, appeared to come as a shock to his wife Barbara Amiel Black, who fainted in the Chicago courtroom and had to be treated by paramedics shortly after 2 p.m. ET. She was reportedly devastated by the news and refused an ambulance.
The new sentence replaces the 2007 sentence of 78 months. Lord Black has already served 29 months in prison.
Judge Amy St. Eve’s sentence also included two years of supervised release. Lord Black has six weeks before he must surrender to the prison bureau and has been given two weeks to file an appeal.
The Blacks left the courthouse without commenting to reporters, the frail-looking Lady Black having regained her composure.
During the Friday morning hearing, lawyers went head to head over whether Lord Black should return to prison. He was released on a $2 million bond roughly a year ago after the U.S. Supreme Court cast doubt on his three fraud convictions.
Early in the hearing, which began at 10:30 a.m. ET, Judge St. Eve ruled in favour of the prosecutors, saying Lord Black abused his position of trust by “stealing” money from shareholders of his media company Hollinger International and that he used “sophisticated means” to conceal the fraud that remains.
In return, Lord Black’s lawyer Miguel Estrada said his client had been a model prisoner and had conducted himself with “grace” during the ordeal.
“He was an inspiration in a place where inspiration is rare,” Mr. Estrada told the judge.
In perhaps the most compelling part of the hearing, Lord Black stood before Judge St. Eve and asked to be released.
“I have been adequately punished,” Lord Black told the same judge who presided over his criminal trial in 2007. “I have always tried to take success like a gentleman and disappointment like a man,” he said.
He thanked Judge St. Eve for sending him to a facility equipped with email, so he could pursue his writing from prison.
Lord Black has been immersed in legal troubles for the past six years, soon after allegations about financial irregularities with his media company Hollinger International surfaced.
After a number of civil lawsuits, allegations of impropriety and a report that accused him and other controlling shareholders of running a “corporate kleptocracy,” Lord Black was charged with nine counts of mail and wire fraud in November 2005 and four new charges a month later, including racketeering, money laundering and obstruction of justice — the last charge related to video footage of Lord Black removing boxes of documents from Hollinger’s Toronto offices.
In July 2007, he was found guilty on three counts of fraud and one count of obstruction of justice and later sentenced to 78 months in prison. He was found not guilty of the other charges.
Lord Black began his term at a federal minimum security prison in Florida on March 2008, and made several appeals for release. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeal in Chicago rejected his appeal in June 2008, but by May 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court had agreed to review his case. The top court set aside three of his wire fraud convictions based on the misuse of “honest services” provisions and, following the case’s return to the Appeals court, Lord Black was freed on bail less than a month later. He has spent most of his time since in Florida and at other homes in the United States as he is not allowed to leave the country.
Last October, a U.S. federal appeals court dismissed two of Lord Black’s fraud convictions, but upheld one count of fraud and one count of obstruction of justice.
With reports from Theresa Tedesco in Chicago.
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