Conrad Black

Diary – 23 May 2019

issue 25 May 2019

I owe my return to these pages to the pardon I have received from the President of the United States. When he called me, he referred to my ‘miraculously shrinking crime’ of 17 counts, to 13 (including racketeering), to four, to two; and to the quantum of my alleged transgressions from $400 million to $60 million, to $6 million, to $285,000 (which was approved by independent directors and published in the company’s filings). The President stressed that the White House counsel and his legal staff had analysed the legal material and concurred that I received ‘a bad rap (and) an unjust verdict’. The companies we spent 30 years building descended into bankruptcy under our court-sanctioned successors while they trousered $350 million, and $2 billion of shareholders’ equity was vaporised; a singular triumph of the corporate governance movement.

Many in this country have asked me what I’m doing in response to Tom Bower’s scurrilous book about my wife and me.

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