Black is ACCUSED of ALLEGEDLY taking THEORETICAL money from his companies, particularly Hollinger, Inc. to PERHAPS fund his POTENTIALLY personal interests.
2) Could you qualify that description any more?
MAYBE.
She had Imelda envy. Fortunately, there is a cure. Unfortunately, it involves a jail sentence. But, that's nothing compared to the $60,000 birthday party Black held for her, or the $24,950 trip the couple took to Bora Bora for "summer drinks."
4) The couple spent $24,950 to go to Bora Bora for "summer drinks?!"
Is there an echo in here?
5) Did Black use company funds to...ah, fund these types of things?
It is POSSIBLE that a HYPOTHETICAL investigation MIGHT CONCEIVABLY find that to be the case.
Impossible to say. But, I hear they have reality shows for that.
7) Is Black really ACCUSED of ALLEGEDLY stealing $400 million from the company?
Catching, isn't it?
He is selectively math deficient.
9) Where was the Ontario Securities Commission while all of this was going on?
Serving the Blacks drinks in Bora Bora.
10) Would it be fair to say that the Hollinger board of directors were sheep?
No. Sheep provide us with wool and mutton.
You just can't trust anybody these days.
12) But, we're talking about people like Henry Kissinger and Richard Perle!
You're right. Black should have distrusted them from the very beginning.
It explains why the war in Iraq is going so well.
14) How was Perle compensated for this work?
He was paid a base salary of $300,000 a year and collected a $3.1 million bonus for making investments in dot com companies, some good, some only your mother's investment broker could love. Can you imagine how much he would have made if he had actually had the best interests of the company at heart?
15) About US$5.37 an hour and all of the cherry cola he could guzzle at board meetings?
Uhh, actually, yeah.
16) Why was Black being sued under the American RICO statute?
He must have pissed off a lot of Italian Americans.
17) Why were the RICO charges dismissed?
Hey! - if the Fed couldn't make racketeering charges stick against Al Capone...
18) How will his current travails affect Black's stature in the British House of Lords?
The British prefer their leaders to be barking mad, so his position would have been strengthened if he had claimed to actually be Louis XIVth instead of just dressing up as the dead French monarch. Still, members of the House are no stranger to financial scandal, so it shouldn't hurt his standing.
19) Don't you agree that Conrad Black was a brilliant entrepreneur?
Oh, please! You don't have to be brilliant to buy companies, gut their staffs and reap profits, you just have to have a thuggish lack of compassion for those whose lives you are destroying in the name of economic self-reward.
20) But, he didn't do that with the National Post.
No, and look how much money that vanity project lost him, and now loses for its new owners. For somebody trying to prove that Black is a great entrepreneur, you aren't very effective. Have you considered writing speeches for the NDP?
Obscurant irrelevancy.
22) That's a pretty harsh assessment. Aren't you afraid Black is going to sue you?
And give me all the attendant free publicity? I should be so lucky! Besides, even if he beat me in court, what exactly would he win? Twenty bucks and a pathetic political button collection? Seems like a lot of effort to go to for so little reward.
After what you just asked, shouldn't you be?
No kidding.