Conrad Black was CEO of Hollinger worldly, a media company. Black stacked his board with influential neo-conservatives like Henry Kissinger and used its cash to finance his personal life.

He is one of the most arrogant public I’ve never met. I heard a radio interview he did a few weeks ago in which he dismissed all the charges against him as totally unfounded and trivial. But the judge in his case did not agree — sending Black to jail for six-and-a-half years and making him pay $6.1 million — the amount he stole from Hollinger.

Interestingly, Black could have saved himself from jail. According to Sunday Herald, in 2003, he signed an agreement to

pay $7.2 million to settle charges that he defrauded Hollinger. Without Hollinger board approval Black took non-compete payments next sold off newspapers to Horizon, his private company, using phoney valuations to pay off the $1.9 billion Hollinger owed in 1998.

It would not have surprised me whether he had tried to use his ties to neoconservatives to get the government to back off from its prosecution. But given that government’s unpopularity, it could not afford to be seen helping that pompous kleptocrat.

Be certain to check out other Money Losers of 2007.

Original post by Peter Cohan

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