Black's dream of a Canadian jail

The convicted fraudster, whose downfall began with revelations in the Sunday Express, is desperate to avoid being sent to an American medium-security jail where he would have to share a cell and rub shoulders with mobsters and killers.

In Canada, prison inmates can seek early release after serving just one-third of their sentence, whereas in the US they must serve 85 per cent of their sentence before parole can be  considered. And early release is mandatory in Canada after  two-thirds of the sentence, unless there are exceptional circumstances such as ext­reme violence.

If Black does win the right to serve his time in Canada he could be sent to the same jail where his former right-hand man, David Radler, will serve his 29-month sentence.

Radler gave damning evidence against his former boss, which helped secure Black’s convictions. He cut a deal to give evidence for the prosecution in return for handing back millions of dollars and being allowed to serve his jail term in Canada.

Open prisons in Canada for white-collar criminals are nick named “club feds” because of the soft regime. Many have libraries and lax regimes.

Black, 62, convicted of three counts of fraud and one of obstructing justice by a jury in Chicago on Friday, knows the prosecution are demanding he serves between 15 and 20 years in a harsh US jail.

But today we reveal that, while protesting his innocence during his trial, Black was at the same time getting his lawyers to make a case for him to serve time in Canada, where he has a home in Toronto.

In letters sent to the federal court in Chicago, seen by the Sunday Express, Black’s lawyers, Eddie Greenspan and Edward Genson, disclose they sought advice from other legal experts in international law and prison transfers.

In a letter lodged with the the court, his team disclosed that New York state lawyer Mark Mahoney had managed to get a Canadian drug smuggler handed over from the US to Canada to serve his sentence.

“In 1988 Mark Mahoney explored the possibility of arranging for, in effect, a direct surrender of an accused to a Canadian prison,” the letter said. Canadian drug pusher Jody Munro was caught taking illegal drugs into the US but went to jail in Canada.

“It was a drug importation case and the defendant was released on bail. At the end of sentencing, voluntary surrender was allowed.”

The copy of the letter was lodged with the court after being sent by Mr Greenspan to Eric Sussman, one of the team of US prosecutors who brought the criminal case against Black.

Greenspan even implies it will save the US authorities money to despatch Black to Canada rather than lock him up in the US. “This has appeal from a number of viewpoints, including economy,” he wrote.

But there is one glaring problem with citing this case. Munro was a Canadian citizen, but Black gave up his Canadian citizenship when he was given a peerage and title, Lord Black of Crossharbour, in 2001 while he was the owner

of both the Daily and Sunday Telegraph newspapers.

Ironically, it is a title he now faces losing after the Tories withdrew their whip and there are mounting demands for a new law banning ­convicted felons from sitting in the House of Lords.

PRESENT

Incredibly, Black is still on £10.5million bail and is staying at a £300-a-night suite at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Chicago with his crestfallen wife, journalist Barbara Amiel, 66, and daughter Alana, 25, from his first marriage.

District judge Amy St Eve will decide on Thursday if Black and three other executives found guilty with him should continue on bail pending formal sentencing on November 30. Black’s law­yers, lodging appeals against the convictions, expected to argue that he should be given half the jail term demanded by prosecutors.

On Friday Black endured more humiliation when the judge ordered him to hand over his passport. Moving painfully slowly, almost reluctantly, he rose, manoeuvred around the empty chairs until he stood in front of the 41-year-old diminutive judge.

As he stood before her, the judge reminded him he was under oath as she asked him if it was his intention to return for sentencing.

“Absolutely,” Black replied.

Black reached inside his suit jacket and drew out his British passport. Almost in slow motion, as if barely believing this was actually happening to him, he extended his arm and passed the familiar maroon document to the clerk. She then reached behind her and gave the passport to the judge.

“This will stay in the custody of the court,” said St Eve.

DOWNFALL

Black’s downfall has been a long time coming and much deserved. The Sunday Express was the only paper to ask searching questions about his business activities six years ago. In a series of hard-hitting investigative articles, starting in November 2001, we were the first to alert the world to his dodgy dealings.

In our highly-acclaimed Media Uncovered section, we divulged details of the sale of key assets in his company, Hollinger International, proving they still fell under his control. We detailed the sale of American Trucker Maga­zine in 1998, followed by several US titles to Community Newspaper Holdings for nearly half a billion dollars. And we questioned the sale of his Canadian titles to CanWest for US$3.5 billion.

In early 2002, a furious Black hit back at the Sunday Express, using the full weight of highly-paid lawyers to try and discredit our stories. But by then, the media world – and more crucially many of his biggest shareholders – had been put on red alert.

The previously unnoticed “non-compete” clauses in the Black deals covered by the Sunday Express became public, and shareholders began to turn on their chief executive. By May 2002, as his battle with the Sunday Express intensified, shareholders quizzed Black at the company’s annual meeting over payments made to him and other executives. Black’s legal action against this paper was dropped, and his spectacular fall from grace began.

WEALTH

Prosecutors want to seize about £50million from Black for US Treasury coffers as “forfeiture” for ill-gotten gains from his fraud scheme.

The US government will try to force Black to sell his £17.5million colonial-style, oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, so it can seize the proceeds. It has already frozen the £4.25million Black made from the sale of a luxury flat on New York’s top-notch Park Avenue in 2005.

However, it appears Lady Black can now keep a £1.3million diamond ring her husband bought her and which had been eyed by the government as forfeiture. “We did not propose the jewellery in the final forfeiture instruction,” said prosecutor Eric Sussman.

Investigators plan to make him pay back additional money in “restitution” to the rump of his old company, Hollinger Inter­national, now called Sun-Times Media, of Chicago.

There are a stack of civil lawsuits pending from swindled shareholders that could see his hidden fortune wiped out.

MARRIAGE

Throughout the 14-week trial, Black’s wife of 15 years has loyally stood by him, holding his hand leaving and arriving in court. The strain of the hearings showed only once when she called women journalists vermin and sluts when they tried to get in a lift with her.

Certainly, the trial has dimmed Amiel’s normal vivacious nature and curbed her high spending. In an interview with Vogue magazine in 2002 she boasted: “I have an extravagance which knows no bounds.”

A bank statement from November of that year gave an indication of the gifts bestowed on her by her devoted husband. In just one week he bought her a £300,000 brooch, a £1.3million ring and finery from Balmain, Fendi and Yves St Laurent worth £208,000.

If her husband is stripped of all of his wealth, she could find herself down to just one home, their mansion in Toronto.

But cleverly, she has kept her own career going throughout the trial, writing articles for a Canadian political magazine.

Born in Watford, Hertfordshire, to middle-class parents she emigrated to Canada when her parents’ marriage broke up, living on her own in her teenage years, even sharing a property with prostitutes.

In many articles the ambitious social climber has crowed about the benefits of marrying up, but she is also a realist and knows that vast wealth can disappear as fast as it arrives.

FUTURE

If he serves five years, Black would only be 67 when he leaves prison, not a great age for a man who appears in good health and has a ferocious appetite for business deals.

Before he was convicted, he was making plans to establish a new newspaper empire to restore his reputation and to show the global business community that he was still a powerful player.

Whether he can come back from the dead after such a devastating blow only he can answer, but it seems highly unlikely he will ever be the force that he was.