6 1/2 years, no remorse
CONRAD BLACK SENTENCING | British lord headed to prison for fraud after lecture from judge
Disgraced media baron Conrad Black strode out of federal court Monday sentenced to 6½ years in prison, but free until March 3 when the man the government called a convicted "fraud" is scheduled to report to do time in Florida.
Maybe.
(John H. White/Sun-Times)
Lawyers for Black, a Canadian-turned-British subject, are hopeful that his expected appeal may help keep him out of prison and believe that the fraud and obstruction of justice conviction for stealing millions from his former media company will be overturned. If he does report to prison, his attorneys hope it will be at the federal prison camp near Miami.
Black, 63, a British lord, had the likes of Sir Elton John and political commentator George Will speaking up on his behalf. He was allowed by U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve to keep his Florida mansion and sell his New York penthouse for profit.
St. Eve found Black's crimes cost the Chicago Sun-Times' parent company $6.1 million -- much less than the $32.15 million figure the government contends Black's crimes cost shareholders. Jurors rejected some of those counts that had buoyed the higher figure, St. Eve said.
With the feds seeking a 30-year prison term for Black, his attorney Jeffrey B. Steinback said his client expressed "a great deal of relief" at the sentence. "He's still in good spirits and still has good humor. And I think he's still hopeful for the future."
His daughter and wife flanking him, Black left court with a trademark regal "no comment" in both English and French. When an associate asked if Black would stay in Chicago, Black said, "I love Chicago but not in the winter." Steinback said Black was trying to board a plane to Palm Beach Monday night.
U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said Black is "going to jail as a fraud, a convicted felon convicted of fraud" and that wasn't something to smile about. He said the lighter sentence still would send a message to "anyone else who would think about stealing money from shareholders."
"Look, maybe I'm just dumb. I wouldn't be relieved going to jail for 6½ years," Fitzgerald said. "That's a serious amount of time."
Part of the reason St. Eve gave Black a lower sentence was that his co-defendant David Radler, a government witness, is facing only 2½ years in prison, and she did not want a "vast discrepancy" between the two men's sentences.
St. Eve lectured the ousted head of Hollinger International Inc. -- and leader of a media empire that included London's Daily Telegraph --that in the United States, no one is above the law, "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 you educated you are."
Black, who was seated and stared ahead during the hearing with his fingertips touching, stood when the sentence was read. Minutes earlier, he addressed the court, never apologizing for his actions but saying, "I do wish to profess my 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."
Then he remarked, "I warned my colleagues against it." He did not express remorse, only saying, "we have the verdict we have, and we can't retry the case."
The only one of the four defendants sentenced in the case to express conventional remorse Monday was attorney Peter Atkinson, who said, "As I stand here before you, your honor, I am embarrassed, ashamed."
She sentenced Atkinson to two years in prison; attorney John Boultbee to two years and three months; and former Sun-Times attorney Mark Kipnis, whom she called "the least culpable of all the defendants," to five years of probation with no prison time but a flexible home detention that will leave him free to attend work and religious services.
Kipnis' family and friends gasped in relief as St. Eve departed from the federal sentencing guidelines to spare him prison time.
Black must pay a $125,000 fine and the others smaller fines. They are all jointly liable for the $6.1 million taken from Hollinger shareholders, except for Kipnis, who is only jointly liable for $5.5 million of the debt.