Media Roundup: Exculpations and Forecasting

The media reports on the Conrad Black trial, webbed overnight and today, have gone sparse again, leaving (so far) only a report on an interview and a pro-vindication opinion piece before the trial resumes tomorrow:

1. From The Independent, a report on two interviews Conrad Black has given last week, one to the CBC last Thursday, and the other (the highlight of yesterday's Media Roundup) with the Guardian. In both, Mr. Black maintains his innocence, and describes what's in his biography of Richard Nixon, the ostensible subject of each interview.

2. If you're looking for pecuniary motive amongst Conrad Black's defenders in the press, Peter Worthington's latest column supplies it for he himself: near the start of his latest column, as webbed by the Edmonton Sun, he discloses: "For a time, I was one of those shareholders [of Hollinger International]. In the 1990s I bought 1,000 Hollinger shares for $12 each, and sold them after the National Post was born for $20 -- a 66% profit. I didn't feel fleeced, but that was before Black was bounced." (The trouble with this case, though, is that everyone seems to have a pecuniary motive, with the exception, at present, of the U.S. attorneys, both full and assistant.) The heart of his column, though, declares David Radler to be an impeached witness, and the only real criminal currently in the courtroom. In addition to recounting Mr. Radler's previous lies and more recent lapses of memory, Mr. Worthington supplies this item as enough of a smoking gun to carry his point, after reminding his readers of the counter-intuitivity of the 'dumb Audit Committee' characterization: "It turns out that Radler had inserted the non-compete paragraphs into the minutes after the board meeting, then sent the report to Gov. Thompson -- gambling that the chairman wouldn't bother reading it and just sign it, with the other two following suit. Radler got away with it. Thompson signed approval on something he hadn't approved and didn't know about." Conrad Black, on the other hand, had insisted in writing "that legal niceties be observed."

3. A column in the Financial Times, by Lucy Kellaway, has been webbed but is available to subscribers only. From the intro/come-on: "Six billionaires came to the surprise 60th birthday party that Conrad Black gave for his wife. So did Henry Kissinger, Barry Humphries, Anna Wintour and six dozen other implausibly big names. The food was sublime, as was the wine, and the bill came to $62,869.57. Black paid $20,000 of that and put the rest on expenses.

"I’ve been greedily devouring the details of Barbara Amiel’s party that have been emerging from her husband’s trial. Schadenfreude feels good, but so does disapproval, and thinking about that party makes me wallow in it...." (They let you cadge a 15-day trial if you're not already a subscriber.)

4. Romina Maurino's Sunday report, webbed by the Winnipeg Free Press, is entitled "Govt. focuses on Black’s lavish living to show disregard for shareholders." It relates the prosecution's next stage: to show a combination of lavish living and contempt for the shareholders, as well as contempt for a securities law, on the part of Mr. Black. Two legal experts quoted therein concur that the point of Mr. Healy's testimony, primarily, is to show overall intent. Mr. Healy is not only expected to testify about the sale of the Manhattan apartment, allegedly for way below its fair market value (all told), but also about the purchase of various sundry personal items - as well as a "message Black allegedly asked him to post on a Yahoo message board in response to a complaint about Hollinger’s seemingly static stock price in 1998." Specifically, "Healy explained that to respond would violate federal securities guidelines, [and] Black posted an anonymous response. He also scolded Healy for his hesitation, the court filings say."

(FYI/Reminder: Conrad Black signed a consent decree with the SEC back in 1982. If he is found to have violated securities laws, he could be packed away to jail simply for that violation. The consent decree seemed to be the hole card in the prosecution's case against Conrad Black, specifically. Note that, because he wasn't charged with any SEC-related offense in this trial, double-jeopardy considerations will not apply if Patrick Fitzgerald wants to indict him for one later.)

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A well-known Fast Eddie, currently involved in a Chicago criminal trial, has gotten a profile in the Chicago Sun-Times - Fast Eddie Vrdolyak, that is. The long-notorious Chicago ward boss is going to court, and the native-son effect has kicked in, to his favor, in the Chicago press: "Right before Vrdolyak showed up, another high-profile defendant made his way through security. Lord Conrad Black, the Canadian press baron, is on trial for allegedly looting the Chicago Sun-Times. A print photographer fired off a few frames of Black as he entered, saying, 'Might as well get a few shots of him while we wait for the real guy.''' (No, this is definitely not an attempt to insinuate an exculpation....)