political soundoff

Conrad Black Hollinger Fraud:David Radler Indicted  (continued)
by URI DOWBENKO

The Ravelston Corporation Limited was another Conrad Black controlled entity that in turn controlled Hollinger International through Hollinger, Inc.

(Hard to keep track of all these corporate entities? That's exactly the point.)

According to the seven count indictment, Radler and Kipnis sold various newspaper publishing companies, in order to skim off money for corporate insiders (read: Black) by funneling payments disguised as non-competition fees to a company they controlled, as well as to themselves.

The money trail and network of Black controlled corporate entities ended in Ravelston Corporation Limited, a Canadian company which is now in Canadian bankruptcy proceedings.

Ravelston was a privately-held company with 98.5 percent owned by officers and directors of International and Hollinger, Inc.

"Lord" Conrad Black was Ravelston's controlling shareholder as well as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hollinger International and Hollinger, Inc.

Black has not been charged yet, but US Attorney Fitzgerald said that Radler plans on pleading guilty and testifying at a criminal trial against his former boss.

"The investing public has a right to expect that officers and directors of publicly traded companies are managing, not stealing, the shareholder's money," Fitzgerald said. "And they have a right to expect that payments to insiders are being reviewed, not hidden from their view. Sadly, the indictment charges that the insiders at Hollinger, whose job it was to safeguard the shareholders, made it their job to steal and conceal."

According to Reuters, "Between January 1999 and May 2001, the defendants sold six separate newspapers and a trade publication for a total of $753 million dollars that included American Trucker ($75 million, sold in May, 1998); Community Newspapers Holding, Inc. ($472 million, sold in Feb.., 1999); Horizon Publications, Inc. ($43.7 million, sold in March, 1999), which was owned by Radler, Kipnis and other Hollinger International executives; Forum Communications, Inc. ($14 million, sold in Sept., 2000); PMG Acquisition Corp. ($59 million, sold in Oct., 2000); and Newspaper Holdings Corp. ($90 million, sold in Nov., 2000)."

The corporate insider self dealing involves Radler, the former Sun Times publisher who negotiated the terms of each transaction, and Kipnis, his in-house attorney, who drafted the deals. The closing documents for each sale included a non-compete agreement, used to enrich the corporate insiders. Radler and Kipnis did not disclose their payments to Hollinger International's audit committee.

The net may also tighten around the Neo-Con propagandist, war profiteer and fellow Bilderberger Richard Perle, who was also a former Hollinger board member and was cited in a 2004 SEC report on fraudulent financial activity at Hollinger.

Wayne Madsen reports that "Black's wife, Barbara Amiel Black, a strongly pro-Israeli columnist for the Telegraph and Maclean's and a former Vice President of Hollinger, was cited in a class action lawsuit brought by Canadian investors in Hollinger... The Chicago Sun Times syndicates Robert Novak, the first journalist to reveal in his column Valerie Plame's CIA identity and that of her Brewster Jennings non official cover company. That leak is at the center of Fitzgerald's probe of Karl Rove, Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, and others in the Bush administration for violations of national security laws.)"
(www.waynemadsenreport.com)

Will Conrad Black's frauds protect him? Not if his former employee Sun Times publisher David Radler "sings."

In that case, "Lord" Conrad Black has better stay in a non-extraditable jurisdiction for the rest of his life.

SEE PREVIOUS STORY
The Noose Tightens:Richard Perle's Hollinger Caper by URI DOWBENKO
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=2&contentid=1075


* URI DOWBENKO is the author of "Bushwhacked: Inside Stories of True Conspiracy" and "Hoodwinked: Watching Movies with Eyes Wide Open." He can be reached at u.dowbenko@lycos.com His website is UriDowbenko.Com For more information on Dowbenko's articles and samples of chapters from his books Bushwhacked & Hoodwinked"