Conrad Black was sentenced on December 10 to six-and-a-half years in a United States prison for abusing shareholders’ trust money through a sophisticated plot to embezzle $6,1million from his Hollinger media empire.
At Chicago’s federal court Judge Amy St Eve told the former owner of the London-based Daily Telegraph: “No one is immune from the proper application of law in the US and that, Mr Black, includes you.” As a pale-faced Black stood ramrod straight in front of the Bench, the judge said it was essential to the functioning of financial markets that directors put their companies first. In addition to the prison stretch she fined him $125 000.
“Corporate executives have a duty to act in shareholders’ best interests, not in their own selfish interests,” she told him.
Black was given 12 weeks to put his affairs in order and will report to jail at the beginning of March. His lawyers asked for him to serve his sentence at Eglin Air Force Base, a minimum-security prison near his beachside mansion in Palm Beach, Florida.
After remaining silent throughout his four-month trial, the disgraced press baron delivered a final display of defiance when he accepted an opportunity to address the court.
“I do wish to express very profound regret and sadness at the severe hardship inflicted on many shareholders at the evaporation of $1,85billion of value under the management of my successors,” said the 63-year-old, speaking in a husky yet confident voice.
Prosecutors asked for a sentence as long as 20 years, citing his lack of remorse and his disdain for the US judicial system, which included describing prosecutors as “Nazis” and “pygmies”.
“We have the verdicts we have and we cannot retry this case,” said Black. “I would say, however, that I have never uttered one disrespectful word about this court, your honour yourself or the jury.” Arriving at the court, Black entered the room with one hand in his pocket. He was watched from the public gallery by his wife, writer Barbara Amiel, and his daughter, Alana. The case, which rested on Black’s receipt of millions of dollars in bonuses disguised as phoney “non-compete” payments, is part of a pattern of white-collar prosecutions by the US government that arose in the aftermath of the collapse of vast companies such as Enron and Worldcom.
Prosecutor Eric Sussman told the court that, in some respects, Black’s actions were worse than those of the bosses of Enron, who manipulated books and balance sheets to try to keep the company from collapsing from hidden losses.
“Black and his colleagues simply stole money,” said Sussman. “What put him in here today was his own greed and disdain for the rule of law.” More than 100 acquaintances, friends and family members wrote to the judge urging lenience.
Among the pleas was a letter from Elton John and his partner, David Furnish, which praised Black’s donations to the Elton John Aids Foundation. Prosecutors pointed out that a £5 000 donation came from a Telegraph trust, not from Black himself.
At the beginning of the case the US government compared Black with a bank robber, who used documents and memos rather than knives and guns to orchestrate theft. Rejecting this analogy, sentencing consultant Jeffery Steinbach, who was hired by Black, told the court: “As far as I know no bank robbers have personally built the banks they robbed. None has ever received countless glowing reports from their employees.”
Black’s imprisonment completes the fall from grace of a man whose personal fortune was once estimated at £136million and who controlled more than 200 newspapers around the globe, including The Jerusalem Post, the Chicago Sun-Times and Britain’s Telegraph titles. — Â