The End of Conrad Black - smooth criminal

[Karlin]

This just in - Black found guilty on 4 of 13 charges. CBC news has been broadcasting steadily on the jury verdict being read this morning. Conrad faces 35 years in jail, or as little as 4 or 5, they speculate. He showed no emotion throughout.

---------here is my opinion on it:

The End of Conrad Black: "just another ass" [pun intended]

You see? - these elite wealthy people are just the same as anyone else, but with aires of something we know as "being classy", but that classy act is just a farce, a false front.

In fact, to support his classy lifestyle, he had to steal.

Compared to the average drug-addicted criminal stealing to support his habit, Conrad Black is no different - hence, the obstruction of justice charge that relates to the way Conrad took those boxes of papers from his offices.

 

[Dreadful Nonsense]

A little over the top.No?
But I see your point.
You know I don't know the man except for his accomplishments.
A glimpse into a lavish lifestyle. Neither a crime.
His coolness and the sheer might of his status on the world stage impressed me. I liked what I saw.....until he flashed the finger and i saw that face.

If he hadn't done that, i think part of me would have been a saddened for a moment in time at the verdict.More along the lines of a semi hero in my eyes falling from stature.But that face and finger took away from the class as you put it...True class,in my eyes would never do that in public. He must have been counting his eggs before they hatched so to speak, and was getting ready to gush and gloat....

It was the same with Chretian, a true hero of mine,when I saw him stangle that citizen. That sort of male anger of the rich and powerfull always makes us see their arrogance and ego.


But yeah his reputation is now in tatters.

 

[Toro]

Its very sad because he did not have to steal.

But there's no doubt he was guilty. I would have been surprised if the jury would have found otherwise.

 

[Dreadful Nonsense]

Its very sad because he did not have to steal.

/

Yeah my sentiments as well....but did he steal? It's not all that clear is it?

 

[Colpy]

There certainly is no doubt he is guilty of obstruction of justice.....by far the most serious of the charges he was convicted of.

I don't like him, I find him obnoxious in the extreme, in need of a good kick in his pompous ass, delivered by a member of the proletariat. I guess that is what he got.

BUT he did create by far the best (then) national newspaper in Canada.....he gave voice to the right, and his paper had a high concentration of opinion.....from across the political spectrum. I can't express how disgusted I was when the National Post became unavailable in the east......but then it was no longer under Black's control.

nine years in a Club Fed is what is predicted for him. I wonder if Barbara will get to go on conjugal visits?

 

[Walter]

He'll get off on appeal.

 

[Toro]

Yeah my sentiments as well....but did he steal? It's not all that clear is it?

Yes, absolutely.

He's guilty.

 

[Just the Facts]

Compared to the average drug-addicted criminal stealing to support his habit, Conrad Black is no different

I couldn't agree more. Lots of shareholders are small time investors either buying small lots or indirectly through mutual funds or hedge funds or whatever. He stole from little old ladies' retirement funds to pay for his decadent jet setting lifestyle. I respect his intellect, but he gets no sympathy from me for his crime.

 

[Kreskin]

Lord Black looks more like Lord Melbury. Did anyone walk into the court room today and say "A Gin and Orange, A Lemon Squash and a Scotch and Soda Please!"

 

[coldstream]

I've got to feel a little sorry for Conrad. The U.S federal sentencing guidelines have been very tough on white collar, big ticket criminals in the last few years.. and the federal system only has limited parole eligibility. You usually have to serve 85% of your sentence. He could well spend between 10 to 15 years in prison.. a lot of a 64 year old.

He had opportunities to get out of this final debacle but the same hubris that got him into this, deigned he would not get out of it.

Black is a scion of Argus corporation. The investment vehicle of Bud McDougall and EP Taylor. That's where he learned his trade. He did nothing they didn't do. Probably less. Argus managed to get control of venerable Canadian corporations and bled them and minority (and majority) shareholders to death. Massey Ferguson, Canadian Breweries, Dominion were all sacrificed to their private coffers, their employees left to sands of time. They got away with it because the cozy Canadian business community and the lax securities regulations allowed it. Black used the same underhanded methods was just as ruthless in gaining control of Argus.

Black's mistake was assuming the American business environment would be even more favourable to his pillage and plunder management techniques. It was a not. America meanders between a free range, wild west ethos of capitalism and one of puritanical New England economic Calvinism. It was never cosy or protected, and Black entered just at the time when Puritanism was acendent.

At the same time he gave up his Canadian citizenship, to cut all ties with the 'coddled' Canadian business environment from which him and his cronies had prospered. He was a babe in the woods. That citizenship would have been a huge help to him.. but the bluster of being a British Lord outweighed any common sense on this issue.

Now his only friends, as I've seen from television interviews, are Canadian. And he stands to be barred from Canada as an alien convicted felon. Meanwhile his upper crust British friends, who did little but mooch off him, are gleefully watching this bonfire of the vanities, and looking for their next meal ticket/ party host.. arriviste.. to keep them fed and entertained for a while.

Conrad just made his own bed.. now he's going to have to lie in this moth eaten, soiled concoction. Maybe it'll do his soul some good.

 

[Nuggler]

Conrad Goes Down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111

:sex:Yes, probably, and bends over too.

We can only hope.

Arrogant asshole............:thebirdman:

 

[Dreadful Nonsense]

wasn't chretian's refusal to allow him to become a British lord the reason for his giving up citizenship.....

 

[IdRatherBeSkiing]

So if you are a football star who brutaly murders 2 people you go scott free but if you are an executroid with your hands in the cookie jar you get 35 years? Thats what I call Justice.

 

[MikeyDB]

Idrather...

Who can afford the best lawyers?

Does "justice" come with a price-tag?

Not-guilty does not mean the same thing as innocent.