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Conrad Black enters a Chicago court room in 2007. (Tribune file)
Will former media mogul Conrad Black eventually head back to prison? Or will the flamboyant, 66-year-old’s long-running legal saga end with a judge setting him free for good? A status hearing Thursday in Chicago isn’t likely to answer those questions definitively, though it could provide clues about what U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve is inclined to do.
Two years into a 6 1/2-year sentence, Black was released last year from a Florida prison while he appealed his conviction for defrauding Hollinger International Inc. investors. Black, whose media empire once included the Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Telegraph of London and community papers in the U.S. and Canada, was expected to attend Thursday’s hearing. Get the full story »
James Tyree, the Mesirow Financial chief executive who last week disclosed that he has stomach cancer, will begin chemotherapy next week.
“I feel pretty good,” he told the Tribune Wednesday night. “I’m sitting here stronger and greater than ever, and it’s stunning that these things are inside me”
In a note to Mesirow workers on Thursday, Tyree said that, over the past week, he has completed additional tests and consulted with several more doctors. Get the full story »
James Tyree, the Mesirow Financial chief executive who nearly four years ago had a kidney and pancreas transplant, has been diagnosed with stomach cancer.
Tyree said he doesn’t know the stage of the cancer yet.
“I’ll find that out over the next few days,” he told the Tribune in a phone interview from his office, where he continues to work every day. “They did more tests to find out if it has spread anywhere else,” he said, noting that it’s currently in his stomach and one lymph node. Get the full story »
From Crain’s Chicago Business | Chicago-based company Sun-Times Media LLC is cutting jobs across the company, including at the Chicago Sun-Times, the Post-Tribune in Merrillville, Ind., and the Southtown Star in Tinley Park.
Conrad Black and wife Barbara Amiel in July of 2010, leaving the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune/MCT)
Bloomberg News | Conrad Black’s 2007 convictions for fraud and obstructing justice should be thrown out because it’s impossible to tell whether jurors found him guilty under a now-invalid legal theory, his lawyer told a federal appeals court.
A three-judge panel in Chicago is hearing Black’s case today for the second time following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that narrowed the scope of the so-called honest services fraud statute, the law used to prosecute the former Hollinger International Inc. chairman.
“None of the fraud or obstruction convictions can survive examination of the trial record,” Black’s appellate lawyer, Miguel Estrada, told the judges during oral arguments. Prosecutors, in court filings, said there’s ample evidence to support Black’s conviction on other grounds. Get the full story »
From Canada’s National Post | Attorney’s for former Sun-Times publisher and media mogul Conrad Black will appear in Chicago’s 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to argue that Black’s fraud convictions should be tossed. Black was released from prison after serving two years of a 6.5-year sentence for breaking the so-called “honest services” law.
Get the full story >>
Unions representing former employees of the Sun-Times Media Group Inc. are seeking information from the company in a dispute over termination of health-insurance benefits.
The unions have filed a motion in Delaware bankruptcy court seeking access to documents and other information from the company, which they claim has stopped paying for insurance coverage without court approval. Get the full story »
After the U.S. Supreme Court eviscerated one of the fraud laws used to convict former media baron Conrad Black, federal prosecutors have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the trial error was harmless.
Lawyers for Black say the burden is impossible to meet and that a federal appeals court should toss out his conviction. Black was recently freed from prison after the Supreme Court in June ordered a review of his case because of flawed jury instructions.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. has assumed control of seven pension plans covering workers and retirees of the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper, a move which is expected to cost the pension guarantor some $49 million. Get the full story »
Conrad Black enters the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago on Friday. (Terrence Antonio James/ Chicago Tribune)
U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve said she would not allow Conrad Black, who once controlled a media company that owned the Chicago Sun-Times, to return to his home in Canada until she has more information about his financial condition. She asked to return Aug. 16 with a complete and thorough financial affadavit.
Black arrived in St. Eve’s Chicago courtroom for a 12:30 p.m. hearing to learn the conditions of his recent release from prison. He wore a blue suit and salmon-colored tie, and was accompanied by his wife Barbara Amiel Black. He didn’t say anything, but smiled and gave a thumbs up.
Conrad Black left a Florida prison Wednesday, after a Chicago federal judge ordered his release on a $2 million bond pending a review of his 2007 fraud conviction.
U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve ordered Black, who once controlled a media company that owned the Chicago Sun-Times, to appear in her courtroom at 12:30 p.m. Friday, to go over the conditions of his release. Get the full story »
From the National Post of Canada | The Internal Revenue Service has sent imprisoned newspaper baron Conrad Black a bill for $71-million in unpaid taxes and penalties for income between 1998 and 2003, court records show. Black, who previously headed the parent company of the Chicago Sun-Times and other newspapers, is serving a 6.5 year sentence at a federal prison in Florida for fraud. He , has asked the U.S. Tax Court to throw out the assessment, which seeks payment for the years 1998 to 2003.
