4 ms·

Can you set the record straight with respect to the Black case?

gyardley 14y ago
I'd have to write a book, it's a long and complex case. (If you do want to read a book, Conrad Black's own book on it is very good.) Perhaps start with some of Mark Steyn's writing for the Canadian news magazine Macleans? http://www.macleans.ca/columnists/article.jsp?content=20070730_107322_107322&id=7&page=1 http://www.macleans.ca/columnists/article.jsp?content=200707...
- deleted 14y ago
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- tptacek 14y ago
  Mark Steyn is not exactly a neutral party in the Black case, which has strong political overtones. The article we're commenting on also puts a fair bit of gloss on the affair; Conrad Black may very well be a well-regarded "historian", but what most reasonable people would call him is "one of the richest people in all of media"; he went into his legal troubles with something close to half a billion dollars in assets. The dubious and controversial theory used against Black was "honest services fraud". The statute enforcing it does seem to have been perilously vague. But the moral/ethical/pragmatic reasoning behind it isn't; it boils down to maintaining a fiduciary duty to your shareholders or, in Rod Blagojevich's case, to the citizens of the state you govern. Also, Black wasn't merely charged with honest services fraud, but also with charges like obstructing justice and theft, charges that Richard Posner upheld.
helmut_hed 14y ago
Another perspective worth reading is that of the mutual fund company that originally pushed for a special board committee to investigate Black's compensation and other off-the-books financial arrangements with Hollinger. That committee (of the company's own board of directors) uncovered a number of questionable actions that eventually resulted in the criminal probe described in the Forbes article: http://www.tweedy.com/resources/library_docs/reports/BAN03312004Letter.pdf http://www.tweedy.com/resources/library_docs/reports/BAN0331... (starting on page 11)

I'd have to write a book, it's a long and complex case. (If you do want to read a book, Conrad Black's own book on it is very good.) Perhaps start with some of Mark Steyn's writing for the Canadian news magazine Macleans? http://www.macleans.ca/columnists/article.jsp?content=20070730_107322_107322&id=7&page=1 http://www.macleans.ca/columnists/article.jsp?content=200707...

deleted 14y ago
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tptacek 14y ago
Mark Steyn is not exactly a neutral party in the Black case, which has strong political overtones. The article we're commenting on also puts a fair bit of gloss on the affair; Conrad Black may very well be a well-regarded "historian", but what most reasonable people would call him is "one of the richest people in all of media"; he went into his legal troubles with something close to half a billion dollars in assets. The dubious and controversial theory used against Black was "honest services fraud". The statute enforcing it does seem to have been perilously vague. But the moral/ethical/pragmatic reasoning behind it isn't; it boils down to maintaining a fiduciary duty to your shareholders or, in Rod Blagojevich's case, to the citizens of the state you govern. Also, Black wasn't merely charged with honest services fraud, but also with charges like obstructing justice and theft, charges that Richard Posner upheld.

helmut_hed 14y ago

Another perspective worth reading is that of the mutual fund company that originally pushed for a special board committee to investigate Black's compensation and other off-the-books financial arrangements with Hollinger. That committee (of the company's own board of directors) uncovered a number of questionable actions that eventually resulted in the criminal probe described in the Forbes article: http://www.tweedy.com/resources/library_docs/reports/BAN03312004Letter.pdf http://www.tweedy.com/resources/library_docs/reports/BAN0331... (starting on page 11)