Ha ha ha.......well deserved I say.
Conrad Black granted bail
Paul Waldie
16:52 EST Monday, Jul 19, 2010
Conrad Black has won release on bail while an appeal court reviews his conviction for fraud.
It’s not clear when Lord Black might be released. His lawyer, Miguel Estrada, said Chicago judge Amy St. Eve, who presided over the criminal trial, will have to set the terms of the bail.
Judge's order to grant Conrad Black bail
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The ruling on bail bodes well for Lord Black’s appeal of his conviction. In order to win bail, Lord Black’s lawyers had to establish for the court that his appeal raised “a substantial question of law.” Lord Black has lost previous attempts to win bail, including once before the same appeal court.
“Yes, I am pleased of course,” Mr. Estrada said Monday after the ruling.
The bail decision is one of the few legal victories Lord Black has been able to claim since 2003 when he was forced out as chief executive officer of his U.S.-based media conglomerate Hollinger International after an internal investigation revealed unauthorized payments to him and three other senior executives.
Since the ouster he was, in his own words, “excoriated” by a Delaware Court judge in 2004 for improperly attempting to sell the company's flagship British newspaper, The Telegraph. After a lengthy Chicago trial, he and three other Hollinger executives were convicted of fraud in 2007 for misappropriating $6.1-million and Lord Black was additionally convicted of obstruction of justice for removing boxes of documents from his Toronto office in defiance of a Canadian court ruling. Lord Black began serving his six-and-a-half-year sentence in a Florida prison in March, 2008 and his initial attempts to appeal the trial decision were denied until last month's decision by the U.S. Supreme Court overturned one of his convictions.
The Supreme Court ruling is only one of several legal battles that continue to entangle Lord Black. He faces a variety of civil actions from creditors and investors and he has law suits outstanding against some of his early accusers including Richard Breedan, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Last week the U.S. Internal Revenue Service added to his woes by slapping him with a $70-million (U.S.) tax bill which they alleged he owed for failing to pay taxes on more than $116-million in income he received between 1998 and 2003.