Conrad Black charged with racketeering - Former Gov. Jim Thompson involved

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-holl16.html

Federal prosecutors hit former Chicago Sun-Times boss Conrad Black with new criminal charges Thursday, accusing the fallen media mogul of racketeering and obstruction of justice, along with other crimes.

Black, 61, already faced eight counts of mail and wire fraud carrying a penalty of up to 40 years in prison, plus fines of $2million. The new charges increase his possible prison sentence to 95 years and total fines to $7 million. Black has pleaded not guilty and asserted his innocence.

The charges stem from an alleged scheme by Black and others to loot Hollinger International, the newspaper company that owns the Sun-Times and other newspapers. Thursday's indictment says Black ran what prosecutors call the "Hollinger Enterprise," a scheme to steal money at shareholders' expense. snip

The Hollinger scandal has also brought trouble for the company's board of directors. They have been sued by shareholders. And last month, former Gov. Jim Thompson and two other directors received notice they might be sued by the SEC, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

:woohoo: :bounce:

That wouldn't be the same fine upstanding truthseeking member of the 9/11 commission?

And how wonderful it would be to see this scumbucket hauled before a judge! This bastard rose to the top by playing hot-shot prosecutor and now play high-priced big-gun corporate lawyer for Winston & Strawn (the same firm Ken Starr works for) that are some of the worst corporate predators there are around. A lot of us in Illinois would love to see this dude get his come-uppence.

Now, hopefully Black will be forced to sell the Sun-Times and his corrupt media empire gets taken down. Might be a blue print to look into Mr. Murdoch's dealings.

BTW...this investigation is a Pat Fitzgerald production...

But it is more moral values from the propaganda crowd.
Swamprat, great picture, is Novak involved with this?

one of Hollinger Int'l newpapers.

Yep, he's employed by the Sun-Times...and has been since the Field family owned the papers. We joke here that for being such a high-profile name representing the paper, you rarely see him in Chicago (he was born in Joliet) and he's a big Maryland basketball fan.

Hollinger got Novak as part of the sale of the paper. Actually for a while, Novak was under the employ of Murdoch's Newscorp (Mike Royko got up and quit and went to the Tribune when that happened) and a lot of his income comes from his syndicated column which has zero to do about Chicago, Illinois or reality.

Several years ago, I met a boyhood friend of Novak. The guy laughed that he was a fat, dumpy Jewish kid who got beat up all the time. No one like him and called him a self-hating Jew. Well, guess that's not a problem any more since he converted to Opus Dei.

Cheers...

I wonder if he was siphoning some of the moola?

it was how Black and Perle controled the media. How stories are fed to the press that then become 'fact'. They establish the talking points.

Oh and this feels 'oh so good too'. I hate her even worse than her husband... who has Fitz on his pant cuffs and ain't going far...

It's not pleasant being an object of derision on three continents

Exclusive: Barbara Amiel, the high-spending wife of disgraced media baron Lord Black, speaks for the first time about her fall from grace

By Joan Crockatt and Arlene Bynon


Barbara Amiel sits alone at a table in the elegant Studio Cafe in Toronto's Four Seasons Hotel. Officially, the restaurant is closed. But Amiel, the wife of fallen Telegraph tycoon Conrad Black, still carries enough clout to have the fashionable restaurant opened solely for her – and to have a protective maitre d' hovering nearby. For ten months, Amiel has barely left her mansion in North Toronto's exclusive Bridle Path neighbourhood, where rock star Prince lives close by. Except for a fleeting appearance at the recent wedding of Donald Trump, she and her husband – who previously entertained Prince Charles, the Duchess of York and Henry Kissinger – have disappeared from the social scene.

In the past two years, Black has been stripped of his positions at Hollinger International, former owners of the Daily Telegraph, and publicly humiliated following allegations-that he misappropriated millions-His reign at the Telegraph ended with its sale to the Barclay brothers last July.

Given the extent of the couple's fall from grace, it's hardly surprising that Amiel's demeanour is one of bruised defiance. 'He'll be back,' she says of her husband. 'I'm not so sure about me. It's been an awful time.

SNIP.......

Lord Black's hero is Napoleon Bonaparte, and Amiel says his battle with shareholders and regulators has energised him. 'He's revelling in it. I don't know how he does it. If anything, our marriage is stronger as a result. It has never been stronger.

.........After her wedding, Amiel's columns started appearing in newspapers owned by Black – the Telegraph, Canada's National Post and the Chicago Sun-Times. She says she was torn between her roles as socialite wife and a writer. 'I've had to be schizophrenic with Conrad and that's been a tremendous strain.' Since her husband's downfall, her columns have been axed. The Telegraph delivered the news on May 12 last year, the other papers soon followed and then Canada's independently owned Macleans magazine – which had run her controversial Rightwing column for 27 years – delivered the final blow in late July.

She says this has left her devastated: 'All of the cutting things that were said – the lies, the fabrications – were mere water off a duck's back. But the cruellest thing that happened to me was the loss of my columns. It was like cutting off blood and oxygen.' After Amiel lost her columns, there were few in the Press prepared to support the Blacks. But a handful of writers have risen to their defence, including Telegraph writer Mark Steyn and David Frum, a former aide to George W. Bush who now writes for the National Post.

SNIP

There are flashes of the old defiance, but she cuts a despondent figure in the deserted hotel restaurant. As we prepare to leave, we ask her to reflect on her success, but she says: 'I don't see myself as a success.

At the moment, I am notorious.' With that she thanks the maitre d' and walks out of the door into the street, alone.

http://www.fmwf.com/C2B/PressOffice/display.asp?ID=656&Type=1

So nice of David Frum to stick up for her. He really brings credibility- not.

She is a vitriolic hag, imo, who wrote with a poisonous pen. Poor Barbara, all alone in a CLOSED 5-star restaurant, which is open only to HER, poor baby, NOT!

I only hope they go back to Britain while they wait for the trial, I don't want them in Canada, they didn't want Canada when they were riding high but, now, Black wants his citizenship back to try and save his sorry ass from spending his prison time in the U.S. No friggin way, you have your 'lordship' and 'ladyship' so choke on it.