There will be recriminations a-plenty over what was just announced on the 12th floor in Chicago. Conrad Black was found NOT GUILTY on racketeering, NOT GUILTY on tax fraud, NOT GUILTY on the CanWest scheme, NOT GUILTY on Bora Bora, the Park Avenue apartment and Barbara's birthday party, NOT GUILTY on the individual non-competes on US newspaper sales.He has been found GUILTY in just two narrow areas - "obstruction of justice" re the security camera footage of him removing boxes from 10 Toronto Street, and three "mail fraud" counts relating to the APC non-compete agreement, in which (as the government argued) Black and Radler paid Black and Radler not to compete with Black and Radler. As I argued here and here, those were always the easiest charges to shoot for if you wanted to convict on something. It speaks very poorly for Black's legal representation that the best argument against the APC charges was made by David Radler and the best argument against the obstruction count was made to me over a cup of tea by Barbara Amiel.
Not Conrad Black. He's busy these days getting ready with his co-defendants and lawyer Eddie Greenspan for his fraud trial scheduled to open March 14 in federal district court in Chicago. No, down...
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At the centre of the prosecution case are so-called "non-compete payments", which were demanded by Conrad Black when he sold community newspapers to new owners during his time as Hollinger's chief...
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After 15 weeks of testimony, the Jury has reported back to the judge that they are deadlocked. The jury can't come to a concensus decision. The judge, along with the two legal teams, will now...
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