Jail-bound: Conrad Black arriving at court in Chicago
CONRAD Black, the former media tycoon who used to own the Daily Telegraph, is facing up to 20 years in jail tonight after being convicted of fraud.
The 62-year-old was also found guilty of obstruction of justice by a court in Chicago.
Black and three co-defendants had been accused by U.S. prosecutors of pilfering $60 million that should have benefited his former newspaper company, Hollinger International Inc., and its shareholders.
All three men on trial with Black were also found guilty of multiple fraud counts.
The verdict came after nearly 15 weeks of testimony in Chicago's federal court. Black, a member of the House of Lords, could face decades in prison and millions in fines.
In total, he was found guilty of four of 13 charges.
The jury of nine men and three women delivered their verdict after deliberating 11 days.
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| Failed: Conrad Black's defence lawyer Edward Greenspan leaves court |
The case followed the U.S. government’s efforts to crack down on corporate malfeasance following the Enron, Tyco and WorldCom scandals, and to hold top executives personally accountable for their companies’ actions.
As well as the Telegraph, Hollinger International once owned community papers across the United States and Canada as well as the Chicago Sun-Times, the Toronto-based National Post and Israel’s Jerusalem Post. The Sun-Times is the only large paper remaining and the name of the company has been changed to Sun-Times News Group.
Prosecutors accused Black of billing shareholders $42,000 for his wife’s birthday party at New York’s restaurant La Grenouille, swindling the company in a $3 million Park Avenue apartment sale and taking the corporate jet on a two-week vacation to Bora Bora in French Polynesia.
 He could face up to 35 years behind bars.  |
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Black’s attorneys said the bills were justified business expenses and that he paid his fair share in the apartment deal.
But the heart of the case against the husky, silver-haired publishing millionaire focused on a large-scale selloff starting in 1998 of Hollinger community papers that were published across the United States and Canada.
Companies that bought newspapers in seven such deals paid millions of dollars to Hollinger International, with headquarters in Chicago, in return for promises it would not go into competition with the new owners.
Black was charged with illegally diverting millions of dollars in those so-called non-compete payments to himself, Boultbee, Atkinson and the longtime No.2 man in the Hollinger International empire, F. David Radler.
Some of the non-compete payments also went to a smaller Toronto corporation, Hollinger Inc., which was controlled by Black and in turn owned a controlling interest in the Chicago-based Hollinger International.
The prosecution was led by the office headed by Chicago-based U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who also prosecuted former White House aide Scooter Libby.
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| Torn apart: Conrad Black with daughter Alana, son Jonathan and attourney Greenspan |
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