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

I wonder if these people are told not to worry when they get sentenced?

They'll be out after serving just a third of their sentence, the system will make sure of that.

Conrad Black must stay in US until next court hearing

Canadian-born media baron Conrad Black must stay in the US at least until his next court hearing on 16 August.

Judge Amy St Eve, in Chicago, said she needed more information on Black's financial situation before she could rule on the issue.

Black, a British peer, was released from a Florida prison on Wednesday after serving more than two years.

He was freed on a $2m (£1.3m) bond pending an appeal against a conviction for fraud and obstructing justice.

US District Judge Amy St Eve has ordered Black to hand over his expired passport and told him he should not apply for another one.

Lawyers for the tycoon said he wanted to go back to Toronto in order to avoid media attention and because his wife had a medical condition that made Florida an unsuitable place to live, the Associated Press news agency reported.

Black was freed following a US Supreme Court decision that rejected as unconstitutionally vague the law used to prosecute him for fraud.

The former Hollinger International executive was convicted in 2007 of defrauding investors of $6.1m by paying himself a tax-free bonus from the sale of newspaper assets without the approval of the company's board.

He was also convicted of obstructing justice after being recorded on videotape removing documents from his office in Toronto after US regulators had informed him he was under investigation.

He was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10741750

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