Black in peril as right-hand man helps US investigation

[emad]

Black in peril as right-hand man helps US investigation
By David Usborne In New York
Published: 21 August 2005

Conrad Black seemed to be in deepening legal peril yesterday following the filing of criminal charges by United States prosecutors last week against his former right-hand man in his crumpled newspaper empire.

Most ominously for the Canadian-born Lord Black of Crossharbour, David Radler, a co-founder of Chicago-based Hollinger International and a close friend for 30 years, has agreed to co-operate with prosecutors who said that their investigation into what happened at the company is not yet over.

They were the first criminal charges filed since November 2003, when allegations first arose that Lord Black and other executives had enriched themselves illicitly from Hollinger funds. Since then, the media conglomerate has virtually imploded and Lord Black and his wife, Barbara Amiel, have been cast as social pariahs.

Last week's charges targeted three defendants: Mr Radler, a former chief company lawyer, Mark Kipnis, and the company which Lord Black used to control his empire, Ravelston Corporation. Most legal observers saw no comfort for Lord Black in the fact that he was not among those charged last week. It is typical in such corporate cases for prosecutors to trawl executives slightly lower down the chain of command in hope of using them to net the biggest fish.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article307314.ece

[bemildred]

1. No honor among thieves. nt

[Canuckistanian]

2. As someone who loudly renounced his Canadian citizenship

for the sake of some vanity honorary position, I say may he rot in Hell.

[Spazito]

3. I just LOVE this paragraph!

"Most ominously for the Canadian-born Lord Black of Crossharbour, David Radler, a co-founder of Chicago-based Hollinger International and a close friend for 30 years, has agreed to co-operate with prosecutors who said that their investigation into what happened at the company is not yet over."

He is being investigated in Canada, the US and in Britain, gotta love that! I hope his witch of a wife makes sure to have a generous supply of depends on hand because 'Con' will be crapping his drawers repeatedly, I have little doubt.

[emad]

4. Gems like these make dull Sundays almost a joy....

Looking forward to the UK's special branch busting Black and his gargoyle wife Barb A-Meal for their direct role in financing terrorism in the UK and US!

[pretzel4gore]

5. some connexion to novak, chicago sun times and rove, corn etc

there was a post yestiddy (new spelling in georgebushamerica, for 'yesterday', says fox'news') concerning the linkage between radler, who was publisher of the sun times, and novak, and the outing of plame etc, meaning it's fitz who's behind the indictments...
for ears (new spelling) i hoped the busheviks nazipoos MUST do something that would hopefully replay john mitchel's famous quip about washpost's katherine graham getting her 'tits caught in the wringer' and , regardless of their machinations, the old wringer just keeps turning and all them cowardly rats slinking into the prosecutor's office and spilling the beens....maybe wilson and plame are in on the scheme, but it don't matter: the law is so ponderous, so crude and unthinking it just keeps on going and conrad black, richard perle, melon scaife and murdock etc are exposed as criminals while the lil puunks like rove and novak spend ears being destroyed as gopigs, all in public!
how fukking enchanting can life get?

[daleo]

6. I have no love for Conrad Black and Barbara Amiel

But there does seem to be something odd going on about how these corporate shenanigans are being prosecuted. So far you have Ebbers (a Canadian from a humble background), Stewart (a woman from a relatively humble background) and now Black (a sort of Canadian/Brit wannabe). It looks like the power structure is going to offer up a few scapegoats, as long as they aren't deeply connected (i.e. white American males with upper class pedigree).

I mean, where's Kenny Boy?

[Spazito]

7. Canadian or not, Ebbers deserved all he got

and the same goes for Black, who is NO LONGER Canadian, he renounced his citizenship to get an empty Lordship. As to Kenny Boy, his trial is coming up, in the fall or early next year, don't remember which.

To question where is Kenny-Boy in all this is valid but it doesn't negate what should and is happening to 'Con' and Ebbers, imo.

[daleo]

8. I am not excusing Black, Ebbers, etc.

Just making an observation about the fine structure of the class system, as it actually appears to function.

[Spazito]

9. I agree there is a class structure with regard to the law and

how those with money and influence are treated versus those who have neither. I confess I am waiting, with bated breath, to see Black go down in flames and serving time every bit as much as I am also looking forward to bush's buddy from Enron facing the music.

[daleo]

10. Seeing the pompous "Lord Black of Crossharbour" in prison would be fitting

Remembering his comment that Linda McQuaig "ought to be horsewhipped" is enough to stifle any small twinge of sympathy I might ever feel for the man.

[NYC]

11. Comment about LInda McQuaig:

Linda McQuaig has a strong reputation as a feisty social critic and contrary thinker. Conrad Black once suggested that she be horsewhipped, a remark that failed to restrain her. She visited Kitchener in 1995 to read from Shooting the Hippo (Death by Deficit and other Canadian Myths). She has taken on the wealthy and powerful, from Brian Mulroney to globalization. (six books in all, from All You can Eat: Greed, Lust and the New Capitalism, through to her most recent, Behind Closed Doors: How the Rich Won Control of Canada's Tax System and Ended Up Richer). Now she examines the real story behind the invasion of Iraq, and the impending threat of global warming. It's the Crude, Dude (Doubleday $35.95) goes after the oil-military complex that duped the American public and the media with the search for WMDs. The big oil companies, which heavily donated to the Republican Party, are after control of the most lucrative untapped oilfields left on earth. No one seem to question our insatiable addiction to oil. McQuaig states that by 2003, almost entirely because of the SUV, the overall fuel economy of North America's vehicles, after two decades of improvement, had started to deteriorate. This is despite mounting evidence that greenhouse gas emissions coming from SUVs were one of the fastest-growing parts of the problem. Her book is a wake-up call to both the political and ecological crises that we face.

http://www.wordsworthbooks.com/Author-Events.htm