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. Counsel were confident, but as Canadian rules only pay 55 per cent of successful libel plaintiffs’ costs (and as I had largely rebuilt my socioeconomic status) damages would be much less than 45 per cent of my legal costs. I did collect the greatest libel settlement in Canadian history — $5 million — from my original accusers. Anyone who wants the facts can get them in my book A Matter of Principle, though Bower’s claim that I rested my head on the defence table when the verdicts were read was amusing. I’ve rested my case on the highest American legal authorities’ decisions: the Supreme Court and the President on advice of counsel, and it is over. The case against me was bunk and it is closed.
It is distressing to return to England in the midst of the greatest failure of her government since the American Revolution.
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