Black: Long legal battle expected
GILLIAN LIVINGSTON
CANADIAN PRESS
Source
Forever fallen from his perch high atop his former newspaper empire, Conrad Black's future seems destined to include endless — and expensive — legal wrangling if U.S. authorities lay charges and try to extradite him from his home in London, legal experts say.
With a prison sentence possible if he's convicted of securities fraud in the United States, the former Hollinger group chief executive will likely fight and delay extradition and any charges with all the clout and cash he can muster, lawyers said today.
Allegations two years ago that he fraudulently diverted cash from one of his companies led to a spectacular fall from grace for Black, a jetsetter who once gloated about the strength of his Hollinger newspaper empire, owned houses all over the world and regularly socialized with prime ministers and corporate kingpins.
But yesterday's blockbuster news in Chicago that Black's longtime crony David Radler has been indicted on securities fraud charges — and plans to plead guilty and co-operate with authorities — suggests Black could soon be next in the line of fire of U.S. law enforcement authories eager to crack down on corporate crime.
But U.S. authorities need to move quickly to lay charges against Black to get a potentially lengthy case started, said Douglas McNabb, senior principal at McNabb Associates, a Houston law firm specializing in international extradition.
"The U.S. cannot seek Mr. Black's extradition until after he has been charged," said McNabb, adding he's heard rumours that U.S. authorities could announce charges within a week.
Charges would lead authorities to request Black's extradition and to put a notice of the U.S. arrest warrant on Interpol, the international police network.
Even if charged and facing extradition, Black has several legal and appeal options that alone could drag out the extradition case for a few years at least, McNabb said.
"He's not a terrorist, he's a white collar guy, and he's got money and he's prepared to fight it," McNabb said from Houston.
Black, who gave up his Canadian citizenship a few years ago in a dispute with former prime minister Jean Chrétien over a British peerage, could face years of prison time, "absolutely, without doubt if he's convicted," McNabb said.
That gives Black a good reason to take each legal battle as far as he can.
There's little reason to see why Britain would prevent Black's extradition, McNabb said, since in 2003 the country changed its own extradition laws allowing the U.S. to extradite people as long as they could prove charges were pending.
U.S. authorities are playing out a now-familiar strategy. They will use information from Black's longtime associate, Radler — who was charged along with another executive yesterday with fraudulently diverting $32 million from Hollinger International — to build their case against the former media mogul.
"This is now a well-oiled routine of U.S. prosecutors to go after people close to the top of the organization . . . and then throw the book at them" to get them to help take down their former boss, said Joe D'Cruz, a professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman business school.
Authorities will use Radler's information to make their case against Black strong, particularly to lay out the motivation behind each transaction, said John Coffee, a law professor at Columbia University in New York.
"It's often very difficult to make the case simply from the paper record," he said. "That's why a witness is critical.
"(Radler) can implicate Black with having the requisite intent," Coffee added.
Radler's decision to co-operate is similar to what happened at failed telecom giant WorldCom Inc., where chief financial officer Scott Sullivan testified against CEO Bernard Ebbers in return for a lighter sentence of five years, said Michael Miller, a U.S. securities lawyer based in New York.
Ebbers was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison.
If Black is charged, it will be up to him to decide whether he faces the charges head-on or uses all legal means to avoid them, Miller said.
Miller suggested that Black's lawyers and the U.S. Justice Department are in discussions about what he does next.
"I would assume there will continue to be discussions behind the scenes about whether Conrad Black, at the end of the day, has criminal culpability and whether it is advantageous for him to resolve that criminal culpability now rather than waiting for some day a year or two down the road," Miller said in an interview with ROBTv, a specialty business cable channel based in Toronto.
The last few years have been turmoil for Black, who has faced unending controversy over financial dealings at his companies that resulted in him being unceremoniously tossed as chief executive of the Hollinger Group.
"He was, in many ways, Lord of all he surveyed, and now of course he's under siege," D'Cruz remarked.
If Black is charged, the 61-year-old businessman's entire way of life will be altered, McNabb said. Travel restrictions will mean he can no longer follow his cosmopolitan way of life — in Florida one day, London the next, and he'll be faced with a long and expensive legal battle.
CANADIAN PRESS
Source
Forever fallen from his perch high atop his former newspaper empire, Conrad Black's future seems destined to include endless — and expensive — legal wrangling if U.S. authorities lay charges and try to extradite him from his home in London, legal experts say.
With a prison sentence possible if he's convicted of securities fraud in the United States, the former Hollinger group chief executive will likely fight and delay extradition and any charges with all the clout and cash he can muster, lawyers said today.
Allegations two years ago that he fraudulently diverted cash from one of his companies led to a spectacular fall from grace for Black, a jetsetter who once gloated about the strength of his Hollinger newspaper empire, owned houses all over the world and regularly socialized with prime ministers and corporate kingpins.
But yesterday's blockbuster news in Chicago that Black's longtime crony David Radler has been indicted on securities fraud charges — and plans to plead guilty and co-operate with authorities — suggests Black could soon be next in the line of fire of U.S. law enforcement authories eager to crack down on corporate crime.
But U.S. authorities need to move quickly to lay charges against Black to get a potentially lengthy case started, said Douglas McNabb, senior principal at McNabb Associates, a Houston law firm specializing in international extradition.
"The U.S. cannot seek Mr. Black's extradition until after he has been charged," said McNabb, adding he's heard rumours that U.S. authorities could announce charges within a week.
Charges would lead authorities to request Black's extradition and to put a notice of the U.S. arrest warrant on Interpol, the international police network.
Even if charged and facing extradition, Black has several legal and appeal options that alone could drag out the extradition case for a few years at least, McNabb said.
"He's not a terrorist, he's a white collar guy, and he's got money and he's prepared to fight it," McNabb said from Houston.
Black, who gave up his Canadian citizenship a few years ago in a dispute with former prime minister Jean Chrétien over a British peerage, could face years of prison time, "absolutely, without doubt if he's convicted," McNabb said.
That gives Black a good reason to take each legal battle as far as he can.
There's little reason to see why Britain would prevent Black's extradition, McNabb said, since in 2003 the country changed its own extradition laws allowing the U.S. to extradite people as long as they could prove charges were pending.
U.S. authorities are playing out a now-familiar strategy. They will use information from Black's longtime associate, Radler — who was charged along with another executive yesterday with fraudulently diverting $32 million from Hollinger International — to build their case against the former media mogul.
"This is now a well-oiled routine of U.S. prosecutors to go after people close to the top of the organization . . . and then throw the book at them" to get them to help take down their former boss, said Joe D'Cruz, a professor at the University of Toronto's Rotman business school.
Authorities will use Radler's information to make their case against Black strong, particularly to lay out the motivation behind each transaction, said John Coffee, a law professor at Columbia University in New York.
"It's often very difficult to make the case simply from the paper record," he said. "That's why a witness is critical.
"(Radler) can implicate Black with having the requisite intent," Coffee added.
Radler's decision to co-operate is similar to what happened at failed telecom giant WorldCom Inc., where chief financial officer Scott Sullivan testified against CEO Bernard Ebbers in return for a lighter sentence of five years, said Michael Miller, a U.S. securities lawyer based in New York.
Ebbers was eventually sentenced to 25 years in prison.
If Black is charged, it will be up to him to decide whether he faces the charges head-on or uses all legal means to avoid them, Miller said.
Miller suggested that Black's lawyers and the U.S. Justice Department are in discussions about what he does next.
"I would assume there will continue to be discussions behind the scenes about whether Conrad Black, at the end of the day, has criminal culpability and whether it is advantageous for him to resolve that criminal culpability now rather than waiting for some day a year or two down the road," Miller said in an interview with ROBTv, a specialty business cable channel based in Toronto.
The last few years have been turmoil for Black, who has faced unending controversy over financial dealings at his companies that resulted in him being unceremoniously tossed as chief executive of the Hollinger Group.
"He was, in many ways, Lord of all he surveyed, and now of course he's under siege," D'Cruz remarked.
If Black is charged, the 61-year-old businessman's entire way of life will be altered, McNabb said. Travel restrictions will mean he can no longer follow his cosmopolitan way of life — in Florida one day, London the next, and he'll be faced with a long and expensive legal battle.
posted by The Naked Gord Program at 12:38 AM
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