Judge cuts Conrad Black a break, gives him 78 months
Onetime media mogul Conrad Black was sentenced today to 6 1/2 years in prison instead of a possible 30 years, after a federal judge made several rulings against the government.
U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve opted to go with the shorter end of a sentencing range — 6 1/2 years — in part because Black’s co-defendant David Radler is facing a mere 29 months in prison.
(AP)
(John H. White/Sun-Times)
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St. Eve said Radler was nearly as culpable as Black and did not want too great a disparity between the two men’s sentences.
“There has been great financial consequence from your crime to the shareholders and your company, including the people who work there. Corporate executives have a duty to shareholders, a duty to act in the corporation’s best interests, not in their own selfish interests. They have a duty of trust which they must abide by. Mr. Black, you have violated your duty to Hollinger International and its shareholders...I frankly cannot understand how somebody of your status, on top of the media empire you were on top of, could engage in the conduct you engaged in and put everything at risk, including your reputation. Within the United States, Mr. Black, there is equal justice under the law. The law applies equally to everyone no matter how high your social status, how powerful you are, how wealthy you are, how successful you are, how intelligent you are, what your title is, or how well educated you are. No one is above the law. No one is immune from proper application of the law in the United States.
“(Radler) did come in and cooperate. He is entitled to a lesser sentence because of that. He is not entitled to the vast discrepancy the government has advocated.
Black, 63, was convicted last July of directing a massive fraud at Hollinger, which at one time was the third-largest publisher of English-language newspapers.
In brief remarks before his sentence, Black did not apologize for his actions.
“I do wish to profess my very profound regret and sadness at the severe hardship of all the shareholders with the evaporation of 1.8 billion of shareholder value under my successors...but I warned my colleagues against it,’’ he said.
St. Eve did not take Black into custody. He must surrender March 3, unless he gets an appeal bond.
St. Eve also said that, rather than the $32.15 million figure the government contends Black’s crimes cost shareholders, she would use $6.1 million as the loss Black’s crimes caused.
Contrary to government arguments, she also ruled that most of Black’s crimes occurred inside the United States, not abroad, which would have made for a longer sentence.
Prosecutors had urged St. Eve to sentence Black — who formerly headed Hollinger International Inc. and led a media empire that included the Chicago Sun-Times, London’s Daily Telegraph and the Jerusalem Post — to a maximum of 24 to 30 years in prison.
Even though the sentence was significantly less than the government had wanted, U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said Black is a convicted "fraud" whose sentence should be a deterrent to executives seeking to pillage company coffers.
"Mr. Black is going to jail as a fraud, a convicted felon convicted of fraud," he said to a gang of reporters and cameras. Fitzgerald admitted that some of the charges were tossed by jurors but "the bottom line is we walked in a proved a serious fraud and an obstruction of justice for Mr. Black, and we're satisfied with that."
Jeffrey B. Steinback, an attorney for Black who spoke passionately for his client before sentencing, told reporters later that "it was a difficult undertaking" to convince the judge of the Black he knows against the public figure persona.
"In my business, we always like to see our clients go home," Steinback said. "We thought we had a very fair hearing, a very impartial hearing and a very patient hearing."
Steinback said most of his discussions with Black after the sentencing were "private, but obviously there's a great deal of relief" at getting less time in prison.
"He's still in good spirits, and still has good humor," Steinback said. "He made me laugh a couple of times. And I think he's still hopeful for the future."
Steinback said Black's new appellate lawyers are planning a bail petition in the near future.
"Conrad was not defiant," Steinback said of Black's comments before the judge. "I think he was straightforward. I think he was honest, and I think he was as respectful as he knows how to be, which in my judgement is extraordinarily respectful."
Steinback had asked St. Eve to look at testimonial letters from celebrities including Elton John, George Will, William F. Buckley and former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney, as well as “a lifetime of extraordinary accomplishment.”
“I ask the court to consider all of the work he has done for so many,” Steinback said.
A prosecutor said the celebrities don’t have any better handle on Black’s character than the jurors.
“Does Elton John really know Conrad Black?” prosecutor Eric Sussman said.
Reacting to the sentencing, Monica Prince, a juror on the Black case, said she thought "justice was served" by the 6 1/2-year sentence.
"I think it was very fair," Prince said. "Justice is served. He knew he was doing wrong. And it's only right that he serve his time. Everything was fair."
Another juror has been quoted in Canadian media as saying the mood in the jury room was hostile. The juror was quoted as saying her fellow jurors yelled and screamed at each other, and one juror told holdouts she should bring in her gun and shoot them.
Prince said this was not true — "there was disagreement," but it was civil.
"None of that is true. Everybody did their best," Prince said. "Everybody had a difference of opinion. We were all very hard at work. Justice was served in the jury room."
Asked if she thought the sentence sent a message to other CEOs tempted to steal from the company, Prince said she has no comment.
In contrast to Black, co-defendant Peter Atkinson told St. Eve, “As I stand here before you, your honor, I am embarrassed, ashamed. I don’t think there could be anything worse than seeing what this has done to my darling Stephanie. We had a happy life.”
St. Eve told him, “I believe you have learned a lesson,” and said because of his cooperation with authorities and investigators, she was giving him a lower-than-recommended two-year prison sentence.’’
