07-21-2010, 04:04 PM
Conrad Black May Be Released Today on $2 Million Bail, Can't Leave U.S.
Conrad Black, the former Hollinger International Inc. chairman, was granted $2 million bail guaranteed by a family friend and may be released from a federal prison as early as today.
U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve in Chicago granted Black’s request for bail and said he isn’t permitted to leave the U.S. at this time. The parties are drafting a release order for her signature, which must then be transmitted to the prison before Black is let out.
“His home is in Canada,” defense attorney Miguel A. Estrada told St. Eve, seeking greater freedom for his client. The judge said she’d consider that request after seeing a Black financial statement and hearing from a pre-trial services officer.
Black, 65, has been in the low-security Coleman Federal Correctional Institution since March 2008. He’s appealing his fraud conviction.
A federal appeals court granted Black’s petition for bail this week, following a U.S. Supreme Court decision narrowing the scope of a law relied upon by prosecutors in their case against him.
When he’s freed from prison, Black must immediately return to Chicago to be instructed by St. Eve on the terms of his release and what he can and can’t do.
Estrada’s co-counsel, Marc Martin, told the judge that could happen as soon as Friday, depending on when his client exits the Coleman facility. Martin was part of the team that defended Black at trial in 2007.
IRS Claims
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service claims Black owes the U.S. government almost $71 million in unpaid taxes and penalties, according to court records.
The IRS said Black failed to report and pay taxes on income stemming from personal use of Hollinger’s corporate jets, the use of corporate money to acquire papers written by former President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Roosevelt’s private secretary, and Hollinger’s 2000 purchase of a $5.9 million New York apartment for his use. Black wrote a book on Roosevelt.
Black has asked the U.S. Tax Court to throw out the assessment, which covers payments due for 1998 to 2003. He said in a petition that the IRS relied on “sloppy and careless” findings, from an investigation that led to his conviction, when authorities compiled estimates of his income and unpaid taxes.
Black said he wasn’t required to file tax returns because he wasn’t a U.S. resident, court records show.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-21...ction.html
Conrad Black, the former Hollinger International Inc. chairman, was granted $2 million bail guaranteed by a family friend and may be released from a federal prison as early as today.
U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve in Chicago granted Black’s request for bail and said he isn’t permitted to leave the U.S. at this time. The parties are drafting a release order for her signature, which must then be transmitted to the prison before Black is let out.
“His home is in Canada,” defense attorney Miguel A. Estrada told St. Eve, seeking greater freedom for his client. The judge said she’d consider that request after seeing a Black financial statement and hearing from a pre-trial services officer.
Black, 65, has been in the low-security Coleman Federal Correctional Institution since March 2008. He’s appealing his fraud conviction.
A federal appeals court granted Black’s petition for bail this week, following a U.S. Supreme Court decision narrowing the scope of a law relied upon by prosecutors in their case against him.
When he’s freed from prison, Black must immediately return to Chicago to be instructed by St. Eve on the terms of his release and what he can and can’t do.
Estrada’s co-counsel, Marc Martin, told the judge that could happen as soon as Friday, depending on when his client exits the Coleman facility. Martin was part of the team that defended Black at trial in 2007.
IRS Claims
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service claims Black owes the U.S. government almost $71 million in unpaid taxes and penalties, according to court records.
The IRS said Black failed to report and pay taxes on income stemming from personal use of Hollinger’s corporate jets, the use of corporate money to acquire papers written by former President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Roosevelt’s private secretary, and Hollinger’s 2000 purchase of a $5.9 million New York apartment for his use. Black wrote a book on Roosevelt.
Black has asked the U.S. Tax Court to throw out the assessment, which covers payments due for 1998 to 2003. He said in a petition that the IRS relied on “sloppy and careless” findings, from an investigation that led to his conviction, when authorities compiled estimates of his income and unpaid taxes.
Black said he wasn’t required to file tax returns because he wasn’t a U.S. resident, court records show.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-21...ction.html
