The former press baron’s latest swipe at his critics is deluded, says christopher silvester |
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On the eve of his trial for fraud in Chicago - jury selection begins on March 14 - Conrad Black has penned an article for the April edition of Tatler magazine, in which he rails against the US justice system as well as "the braying, hideous tricoteuses among my accusers, especially in the British press". He even accuses former friends and employees of "pompous self-levitations", a wonderful Conradic phrase. Yet Black's article in his own defence is full of misleading assertions.
To start with, he refers to himself as "the largest shareholder" and, a paragraph later, as "the chief shareholder" in his media empire. But private investment partnership Tweedy Browne, which triggered the initial investigation into Hollinger International's affairs, owned 17 per cent of shares in that company as opposed to Black's 15 per cent
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| Black accuses former friends and employees of ‘pompous self-levitations’ |
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(although he had 78 per cent of voting shares). He complains that "my bond, $35m, is the highest in US history, illustrative of the frenzied and failed attempt by the US government to prevent me from exercising the constitutionally guaranteed right to defend myself". In fact, his bond is $21m. He was offered the opportunity to post a lesser bond if he agreed to reside within the jurisdiction until the trial, but he preferred to return to Canada.
Also, the bond was increased from $20m to $21m because the trial judge concluded that Black had misled the court, whether deliberately or not, about his finances. How to explain Black's apparent confusion over the figures? Well, his bond is secured partly with his $35m home in Palm Beach, Florida, on which there is a $10m mortgage.
"Constitutionally questionable American legislation directed against organised crime and terrorism is frequently misapplied against completely improbable people," he declares. Here Black is flying in the face of some 
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