Conrad Black’s plan for a low-profile, post-prison life
The Globe and Mail’s Paul Waldie communicated with Canada’s most high-profile ex-convict, who plans a simple life of writing public books, conducting private business and trying to lose weight.
From The Globe and Mail, posted May 13:
“Apart from trying to sell books, I don’t want any more interviews, apart from one with [CBC news anchor Peter Mansbridge] that I promised him in August, and a couple when I get back to England,” Lord Black wrote in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail.
Lord Black returned to Canada on May 4 after being released from a Florida prison, where he had been serving a 42-month sentence for fraud and obstruction of justice. His arrival was met with some controversy because it wasn’t clear if he could come back to Canada since he had given up his Canadian citizenship years ago to sit in the House of Lords in Britain. However the Department of Citizenship and Immigration gave Lord Black a one-year temporary-resident permit, clearing the way for him to fly to Toronto immediately upon his release from a Miami jail. …
Lord Black wrote about his legal battle in a book released last fall called A Matter of Principle. An updated version of the book is coming out next month, Lord Black said in the e-mail.
He also made it clear in the e-mail that he remains convinced all of the charges against him should have been reversed.
The story notes that while Conrad has paid his debt to society, his civil litigation woes continue. U.S. authorities claim he owes tens of millions in unpaid taxes, the legal mess surrounding the bankruptcy of Hollinger Inc. continues, and Black himself is suing British author Tom Bowers.
Black is sparing himself one further punishment: He’s staying away from newspaper proprietorship.
“I have no active ambition to get into that business,” he said last August. “I have enough assets around that I will revive my career as an investor. I have had a modest success as a writer of books and columns. I’ll just go on with that and see where it all leads.”