Back to regular view     Print this page

Subscribe   •   EasyPay   •   e-paper
Reader Rewards   •   Customer Service

Weather: FIZZLE
Become a member of our community!

Business blogs
Business links
Business
Columnists
 


AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Conrad Black on Trial
Print Article Email Article Share / Bookmark
suntimes.com

Search Classifieds

View Subcategories

Start Building

I want to start
creating my ad right away.

Start Building

Register

I'd like to set up my account first, then create an ad.

Register

Login

I've already registered, and I'm ready to place an ad.

Login






TOP STORIES ::
Mary Mitchell exclusive: Till's casket left to waste

Jones making plays, waves

No shame for White Sox in 10-8 loss to Indians

Expanding horizons: The diverse, family-friendly Folk & Roots fest

Ignoring parks a natural mistake







Conrad Black cannot go back to Toronto

COURTS | Media baron must await sentencing in U.S.

August 2, 2007
Grounded.

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that convicted former newspaper baron Conrad Black cannot return to his home in Toronto before his sentencing for fraud and obstruction of justice Nov. 30.

He will have to content himself to commuting between his suite at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Chicago and his $35 million (according to the most recent appraisal) home in Palm Beach, Fla.

Black offered to forfeit that home and any claim on the $10 million sale of his Park Avenue penthouse if he did not return from Canada for his sentencing.

But prosecutors said the homes were not his to offer. All Black's assets are claimed by the government or other people who have sued him, so he really has nothing to offer as collateral to persuade the judge to trust him to return, they argued.

U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve said of Black, "He's not a man to run away and hide," but he could change his mind at the last minute and fight a lengthy battle in the Canadian courts, she said. So he is restricted to northern Illinois and southern Florida.

"Have a nice summer," Black said to journalists with an understated wave as he left court with his wife, Barbara Amiel Black.

'Damnable liar'
St. Eve did not consider a report by a private investigator who said Black transferred 40 million Euro to a secret account in Gibraltar from accounts in Luxembourg, Barbados and the Channel Islands.

Black attorney Edward Greenspan admitted Black had accounts in Barbados and the island of Jersey but said they had been "substantially inactive" since 2005. He denounced the investigator as a "damnable liar."