Steve Maich misses the point about Black
Black Deserves Jail after what he did to Hollinger
Mar 12, 2009
In the MacLean’s Magazine issue of January 19, 2009, Steve Maich, the Business columnist, made the point in his article “Why it’s Time to Set Conrad Black Free,” that it was more sensible for the outgoing George Bush to pardon Conrad Black than it was for Black to remain in his American jail cell, serving out his sentence for fraud. He argued that the two key objectives in punishing white-collar crime are deterrence and retribution and that deterrence is meaningless if the stakes are high enough. Maich also felt that the issue of retribution was not strong enough as Black’s fraud did not lead to massive job losses or to the disintegration of hundreds of people’s life savings.
Mr. Maich’s thesis discounts the fact that Conrad Black is a criminal. The extent of his criminality is irrelevant; he did commit corporate fraud as well as obstruction of justice and just because these weren’t on the scale of an Enron makes no difference. He would have gotten away with more if he could have done so. In using corporate funds for his own, and others’ bonuses, he stole from Hollinger, its shareholders, and anyone else who was involved with the company. In addition, Maich treats Black’s removal of document boxes from his office during an investigation as “ill-advised.” It was more than that. There was documentary evidence in those boxes and removing them was obstruction of justice, one of the reasons Mr. Black is in a Florida jail.
Conrad Black’s Attitude
To add to his woes, Black’s arrogance and lack of respect for others did not make him many friends. The attitude of superiority and arrogance was planted and fostered by Conrad’s father, George Montegu Black, Jr. George ensured that Conrad had the best of everything: education at Upper Canada College, a chauffeur, a rich lifestyle, and a love of money. This childhood produced an intelligent, pompous, supercilious man whose main occupation was wealth. Peter C. Newman, in a MacLean’s article of December 1, 2003 entitled “Conrad Black’s Fall” quoted an interview with Black that had taken place in 1982 when Black was 38. At the time Black stated: “Greed has been severely underestimated and denigrated, unfairly so, in my opinion... It is a motive that has not failed to move me from time to time."
It is true that Conrad Black was an entrepreneur of the highest order. There are few who would dispute his intelligence, and many who would say that he was often troubled. However, to reduce his sentence merely because his crimes were not all that spectacular is ridiculous. If Conrad Black is as good a businessman as Maich and others feel he is, then he will be able to recover something after his sentence is over. Hopefully what he will leave behind in his jail cell is his greed and haughtiness.
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