Arraignment for Conrad Black Pushed Back
Arraignment for Conrad Black Pushed Back
Conrad Black, 61, has been charged with eight counts of mail fraud and is accused of swindling Hollinger International of more than $80 million through bogus fees and expense account abuses.
By Mark Fitzgerald
Published: November 22, 2005 11:45 AM ET
CHICAGO
Deposed newspaper mogul Conrad Black's arraignment on charges of stealing more than $80 million from Hollinger International was postponed Tuesday until Nov. 29.
In U.S. District Court in Chicago Tuesday morning, assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Kent said Black's Canadian lawyer, Edward Greenspan, requested "a short adjournment" to allow Black time to retain an American lawyer.
"We expect Mr. Black to be here Wednesday," Kent told U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve.
Kent told St. Eve the government had also agreed to postpone arraignments for Black's two co-defendants, former Hollinger executives Jack Boultbee and Peter Atkinson.
Their arraignments were also set for Wednesday morning. Kent said their attorneys had indicated they would appear in court.
Kent said arrest warrants had been prepared for all three men but not executed. Also Tuesday, St. Eve received a not-guilty plea from Ravelston Corporation, the bankrupt holding company Black once used as the principal entity to control his worldwide newspaper empire.
Ravelston was indicted last August on charges it schemed with former Sun Times Publisher David Radler and former Hollinger International General Counsel Mark Kipnis to fraudulently divert millions from the sales of community newspapers.
Ravelston had recently gained permission from the Ontario court overseeing its bankruptcy to plead in the United States to the charges. Assistant U.S. attorney Kent told the court that Monday night, Black had dropped his appeal to prevent Ravelston's plea.
Kent said Black attorney Greenspan characterized that as a "token of good faith" that Black would appear in court.
Black, 61, was charged last Thursday with eight counts of mail fraud, accused of swindling Hollinger International of more than $80 million through bogus fees and such expense account abuses as charging to the company $42,000 of the $62,000 tab for a surprise party for his wife, former Hollinger director Barbara Amiel Black.
If convicted of all counts, Black could face 40 years in prison.
Black is unlikely to get much mercy if he is convicted, said James D. Cox, a Duke University law professor who is an expert in white-collar crime.
"What's really different with Conrad Black compared to the other [recent CEO fraud trials] is that here we have a much closer link of the alleged conduct benefiting Conrad Black," Cox said in a telephone interview Monday evening. "It's very hard to think [the alleged misconduct] had any other purpose than to move money out of one entity to Mr. Black's pocket."
Black also has the misfortune of having attracted feverish press coverage at the same time the public is still fed up with crime in the suites, Cox said.
"That's why I think the judge, if Mr. Black is found guilty, will impose a sentence on the higher end of the [sentencing] guidelines," he said. "There's been no evidence of the public temperament backing off of their revulsion over the greed in the corporate suites."
Recent wide-scale job reductions such as the 30,000 layoffs announced by General Motors this week, "I think raises the price for corporate officers several notches," Cox said.
"The jury will be made up of people who have probably lost their jobs -- or worry about losing their jobs," Cox said.
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Mark Fitzgerald (
[email protected]) is E&P's editor-at-large.
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