TORONTO – An American court has fined former media baron Conrad Black $6.1 million for violating securities laws.
The fine relates to Black’s tenure at Hollinger International Inc. based in Chicago.
In his judgment earlier this month, Judge William Hart of the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois blasted Black as “intransigent.”
Hart was especially unhappy with Black’s denunciation of the courts and justice system in a book he has written.
Black, who spent three years in prison for fraud and obstruction of justice, has requested a stay of the judgment while he appeals related convictions.
Also today, Black lost his bid to make a pitch in person to the council considering recommending he lose his Order of Canada honour.
Global News takes at Conrad Black’s rise and fall through
the years.
August 25, 1944: Conrad Moffat Black is born in Montreal.
1959: Upper Canada College expels Black after he was found to be selling
exams to classmates.
1966: Black buys his first newspaper, the Eastern Townships Advertiser. He is
the publication’s only employee.
1969: Black, David Radler and Peter White buy the Sherbrooke Record for
$20,000.
1971: The trio then forms Sterling Newspapers Ltd and buys several other
newspapers.
1976: Black publishes his first book, Duplessis, a biography of former Quebec
premier Maurice Duplessis.
1978: In a shocking move, Black acquires control of Argus Corp. Ltd.
1979: Black tries to acquire the Toronto Globe and Mail, but he and his
partners fail.
1983: Black sues Town & Country, an American magazine, over an
allegedly defamatory article by Peter C. Newman, Canadian journalist and Black
biographer. The magazine issues a clarification and apologizes. As with all of
Black’s subsequent libel actions, most of which are settled out of court, the
case is not tested in a courtroom.
1985: Black acquires control of Britain’s Daily Telegraph, one of the
world’s largest English-language newspapers.
1989:The Globe and Mail settles a libel suit with Black over a
profile of him published in 1987.
1990: Penguin Books agrees to destroy 6,200 copies of Who’s Money Is It
Anyway? The Showdown on Pensions. This – after Black sued the publisher
over the book, which contains details of his dispute over Dominion employees’
pension benefits.
1993: Black’s second book, Conrad Black: A Life In Progress, is
published.
May 1998: Hollinger International embarks on a three-year sell-off of hundreds
of its U.S. community newspapers.
July 31, 2000: Hollinger International sells its 13 major Canadians newspapers, as
well as 126 community papers, internet properties and half of the National
Post to CanWest Global Communications for $3.2 billion.
October 30, 2001: After renouncing his Canadian citizenship, Conrad Black takes his seat
in the British House of Lords and adopts the title Lord Black of Crossharbour.
June 17, 2003: Hollinger International begins investigation of $74 million U.S. in
non-compete fees paid to Black, other executives and Black’s Ravelston Corp.,
in the sale of the company’s newspaper assets.
November 19, 2003: Black steps down as CEO of Hollinger International and puts company up
for sale. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Ontario
Securities Commission announce probes.
December 22, 2003: Black appears before the SEC, but refuses to answer questions,
invoking the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
January 17, 2004: Hollinger International removes Black as chairman and launches
$200-million U.S. lawsuit against him and David Radler over alleged financial
irregularities.
January 18, 2004: Black announces the $600 million sale of his controlling stake in
Hollinger Inc., his Canadian holding company, to David and Frederick Barclay.
The sale would give the Barclays effective control over Hollinger International
and its prize British asset, The Telegraph.
January 26, 2004: Hollinger International launches a lawsuit to stop the sale to the
Barclay brothers.
February 26, 2004: Delaware Judge Leo Strine blocks the sale of Hollinger Inc. to the
Barclays, saying Black’s explanations “do not have the ring of truth”
and that he “breached his fiduciary and contractual duties persistently
and seriously.”
March 8, 2004: Black is removed as chairman of the Telegraph group by its directors.
April 30, 2004: Hollinger International raises its lawsuit against Black and others to
$1.25 billion, alleging racketeering.
June 22, 2004: Hollinger International sells the Telegraph Group to the Barclays for
$1.65 billion U.S.
August 31, 2004: A special committee of Hollinger directors issues a damning report
accusing Black and other executives of running a “corporate kleptocracy”
and siphoning off hundreds of millions of dollars they weren’t entitled to.
October 1, 2004: Black responds by suing the special committee for $1.1 billion for
defamation.
October 8, 2004: A U.S. Federal Court judge throws out Hollinger International’s
$1.25-billion racketeering lawsuit.
March 18, 2005: The Ontario Securities Commission files notice it intends to charge
Black, Hollinger and other former executives with violations of securities law.
March 23, 2005: U.S. prosecutors confirm Black, Radler and Hollinger Inc. are the
subject of a criminal investigation.
April 20, 2005: Black and Radler resign as officers and directors of Ravelston, Black’s
private holding company. Ravelston files for bankruptcy protection, saying it
is no longer receiving management fees from Hollinger International or
Hollinger Inc.
May 25, 2005: Black and his personal chauffeur are caught on security video removing
12 boxes of documents from Hollinger Inc.’s offices despite a court order barring
their removal.
August 18, 2005: David Radler, former Hollinger lawyer Mark Kipnis and Ravelston Corp.
are charged with fraud by U.S. federal prosecutors.
September 20, 2005: As part of a plea bargain, Radler pleads guilty to
mail fraud. He is fined $250,000 and given a reduced sentence of 29 months in
return for co-operating with prosecutors.
November 17, 2005: Black is charged with eight counts of mail and wire fraud by U.S.
prosecutors. Former Hollinger executives Peter Atkinson and John Boultbee are
also charged.
December 1, 2005: Black appears in Chicago court and enters a plea of not guilty, as does
Atkinson. Black is released on $20 million bail.
December 7, 2005: Boultbee pleads not guilty.
December 15, 2005: Prosecutors bring four new charges against Black, including
racketeering, obstruction of justice and money laundering.
June 26, 2006: Black’s bail is increased by $1 million after prosecutors accuse him of
not telling the truth about his personal worth.
September 8, 2006: Black is arraigned in Chicago on new tax evasion charges.
September 15, 2006: Black confirms he is trying to regain his Canadian citizenship,
renounced in 2001 so he could accept a peerage in Britain.
March 14, 2007: Jury selection begins in trial of Black, Atkinson, Boultbee and Kipnis.
November 2007: Black acknowledges the social “awkwardness” caused by his
legal woes and his “regret” over giving up his Canadian citizenship
to become a British lord, according to comments published in Men’s Vogue.
But Black insists he has “an excellent basis for appeal.” “I am
hopeful that I will win, sooner or later, the battle for my reputation,”
Black wrote in a 1,400-word e-mail to Men’s Vogue journalist Nicholas Stein.
“The other matters are secondary.”
December 10, 2007: Black is sentenced to 6 1/2 years in a U.S. federal prison for stealing
millions from Hollinger International Inc. “Mr. Black, you have violated
your duty to Hollinger International and its shareholders,” Judge Amy St.
Eve told him. “I frankly cannot understand how somebody of your stature
could engage in the conduct you engaged in and put everything at risk,
including your reputation.” Judge St. Eve also fined Lord Black $125,000
U.S. and ordered him to forfeit $6.1-million U.S., but will allow him to keep
his mansion in Palm Beach, Florida. Black remained expressionless as he was
sentenced.
December 13, 2007: Upcoming legislation in the United Kingdom could eject Black from the
House of Lords. A government group working to overhaul the controversial,
unelected body will address convictions and jail sentences, a prospect that
could disqualify Lord Black of Crossharbour from sitting in the second chamber.
February 28, 2008: A U.S. federal appeals court denies Black’s last attempt to secure bail
pending his appeal.
March 10, 2008: Black begins serving his prison sentence in Florida, where he could be
feeding convicts or fixing their toilets. He went through a regular screening
at the Coleman Federal Correction Complex, before he was handed an inmate
guidebook and began serving a 6 1/2 year sentence for fraud and obstruction of
justice.
March 14, 2008: Black’s lawyers file a new appeal claiming the judge in his case allowed
the prosecution to take “crucial evidentiary shortcuts.”
November 20, 2008: Black requests that George W. Bush commute the former press baron’s
jail sentence before the U.S. president’s tenure in the White House ends in
January.
January 19, 2009: George W. Bush denies a pardon to Black.
March 30, 2009: Black wins an interim legal victory in six related libel actions he
filed against former directors or advisors of Hollinger International. A
Superior Court judge has refused to dismiss the libel suits and ruled they can
be heard in Ontario, rather than in New York or Illinois, as the defendants
requested. The civil suits stem from press releases issued on the Hollinger
website in 2004 that accused Lord Black of presiding over a “corporate
kleptocracy” and other financial wrongdoing while presiding over the
company. The defendants include former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
chairman Richard Breeden, who headed an independent probe of Hollinger, as well
as former company directors James Thompson and Henry Kissinger.
March 30, 2009: The Sun-Times Media Group Inc. files for bankruptcy protection.
According to the newspaper, the Sun-Times Media Group owes up to $608 million
U.S. in back taxes and penalties from past business practices by Black, its
former owner.
May 18, 2009: Black wins the equivalent of the judicial lottery, as the U.S. Supreme
Court agrees to review his 2007 criminal conviction for fraud, a
“one-in-a-million” judicial decision that could herald Black’s early
release from a Florida prison. The U.S. court rarely agrees to hear appeals on
criminal convictions, but beginning sometime in October, the court will review
Black’s fraud conviction.
June 11, 2009: U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens rejects a bail request
from Black, but rules the ex-media mogul is free to reapply to the trial court.
July 15, 2009: U.S. district court Judge Amy St. Eve denies another bail request from
Black.
August 10, 2009: Black is denied yet another bail request, once again from U.S. Supreme
Court Justice John Paul Stevens.
June 24, 2010: The U.S. Supreme Court vacates an appeals court ruling that upheld
Black’s 2007 convictions on defrauding Hollinger. The high court finds flaws in
the controversial “honest services” statute used to
prosecute Black on charges of mail fraud.
July 19, 2010: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit grants Black bail
pending his appeal on fraud charges. He will be released from a Florida prison,
and the terms of the bail conditions will be set by Judge Amy St. Eve, the
district judge who presided over his criminal trial in 2007.
July 21, 2010: Black is freed on $2 million bond, pending the outcome of his appeal of
the fraud counts. The judge ordered him to appear in her Chicago courtroom
before his release, and then he must remain in the United States during the
appeal process.
U.S. appeals court overturns two fraud convictions against Black but
upholds convictions for obstruction of justice and one addition fraud count.
Black maintains he will seek “complete vindication.”
December,
17, 2010: The federal appeals court in Chicago denies a Black’s
request for a re-hearing of his case by the full court.
January, 13, 2011: At a status
hearing, prosecutors say they won’t retry Black on the two convictions tossed
out by the appellate court. But Judge Amy St. Eve sets a June 24 resentencing
date for Black on the two convictions that were upheld.
May 31,
2011: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that it will not hear a
second appeal of Lord Black’s convictions.
April 18,
2012: Black wins a rare legal victory that paves the way
for the disgraced media mogul to rehabilitate his tarnished reputation. The
Supreme Court of Canada says Black can pursue a series of libel lawsuits in the
province of Ontario.
May 1, 2012: Citizenship and Immigration Canada authorize a one-year temporary resident permit for Black, sparking a heated debate in Canada’s House of Commons.
May 4, 2012: Hours after his release from serving a 42-month sentence for fraud and obstruction of justice in a Florida prison, Conrad Black was welcomed home to his Bridle Path estate in Toronto by wife Barbara Amiel and two white dogs.
August 24, 2012: Conrad Black is asking Federal Court to force the Order of Canada advisory council to allow him an oral hearing as it decides whether to recommend Black’s prestigious membership be revoked. Federal lawyers are set to argue in court Friday that Black should be able to make written arguments to the council.
October 25, 2012: An American court fines Black $6.1 million for violating securities laws. The fine relates to Black’s tenure at Hollinger International Inc. based in Chicago.
Also on this day, Black loses bid to make a pitch in person to the council considering recommending he lose his Order of Canada honour.
– With files from The Canadian Press
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