In a previous post, I predicted that Conrad Black’s sentence would fall somewhere between 2.5 and 9 years.
Monday morning in Chicago, Black was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison…that’s 6.5 years, roughly in the middle of my predicted term.
Mr. Black will be required to serve a minimum of 85% of his sentence before being allowed to apply for parole.
This is a victory for the shareholders of the company he looted and a just sntence in terms of jail time. However, Mr. Black still faces a raft of civil suits, including one launched by the Securities and Exchange Commission in New York.
It’s not over yet. By the time it is over, Mr. Black will be forced to live off the royalties of whatever books he is able to write. He’ll certainly have the time to come up with some ideas…in his breaks between washing prison windows and mopping the floors at 12 cents an hour…money which he plans to invest in a variety of creative projects.
It’s interesting that many famous men, including Brian Mulroney and Elton John, wrote letters of support for Mr. Black.
However, it’s even more interesting that two of his business collegues declined to do so. One of those was the real estate tycoon, Donald Trump…the other the accused war criminal Henry Kissinger.
All in all, a fine day for the U.S. justice system, the media, which has rid itself of a destructive element and the people of the United States whose treasury will receive several of Black’s forfeited millions.
As to Mr. Black’s so-called "hidden wealth", most of that is under the care of his raven-haired (artificially coloured) wife, Barbara. The question Black’s former friends, associates and victims are asking is this: "Will the social climbing Barbara line up at the prison entrance, with all the other wives waiting to visit their incarcerated criminal spouses"?
…..a fine day for the U.S. justice system, you say. And the media… which has yet to comment on Canada’s lame-duck no-show performance in apprehending this robber-baron.
Wasn’t he videotaped in Canada, breaking a Canadian court-order by unlawfully moving boxes of documents here and there?
Did Canada have nothing on him?
But I welcome the verdict except he wasn’t charged with robbing pensioners.
But irate shareholders… that’s another story.
Piss them off at your peril.
Bastards like Black, like it or not, are essentially above the law – he will undoubtedly have a cushy time in prison – greased palms will ensure that his time will be made as smooth as possible and odds-on, he will be released on ‘good behaviour’ before serving the full time.
Put it this way, any small fry who are caught defrauding the masters would incur much heavier sentences.
In fact,Pisces…Black will not have a cushy time in prison – U.S. prisons are hellholes at the best of times. Conrad will be in what is termed a “low-security” institution…and under the law must serve at least 85% of his sentence before being eligible to apply for parole. No time off for good behaviour, not much of a library and nothing in the way of amenities such as computers etc. It won’t be really “hard time” but it won’t be easy either.
Having said that, it was a lenient sentence when measured against the crimes he committed.
An RCMP commercial crime officer once told me that no businessman with assets in excess of 5 million dollars could withstand a thorough and professional investigation.
Okay!
So Conrad gets it. Now how about our former PM Mulroney?
What Black got was delivered by a US Congressional Committee, an agency with teeth.
Our roll-the-dicer, who pissed very close to the wind while still in elected office, got patted down by an ethics committee who teased him a bit and let him strut his stuff for 4 hours.
Will it take an expensive public inquiry to find out what this bent egomaniac has been doing?
Or should CCRA/RCMP be getting on to it, like they’re already paid to?
“You can tell a man by the company he keeps…”…. slimy manipulative little greedballs like Karlheinz Schreiber.
I just LOVE that Mulroney had a conscience-attack just before one-thousand dollar bills ceased to be legal currency.