XPost: can.politics, ont.politics, ott.general   
   From: ConsRCons@govt.cda   
      
   Why is he still in Canada?  He had only a one-year visa.  Harper & Co   
   been slipping him extensions while we're not watching?   
   _______________________________________   
      
   Conrad Black's US court battles end with $4.1 mln fine   
      
   (AFP) – 2 hours ago   
      
   CHICAGO, Illinois — Fallen media baron Conrad Black's last battle with   
   US prosecutors has ended with a $4.1 million fine and a ban on him   
   leading public companies, securities officials said Thursday.   
      
   Black returned to Canada last year after serving 37 months behind bars   
   in the United States on fraud and obstruction of justice charges.   
      
   The fine announced on Thursday ends a long-running civil lawsuit which   
   had been put on hold while his criminal case worked its way through the   
   courts.   
      
   The settlement comes after he reached a deal with the US Securities and   
   Exchange Commission last month. The agreement, which was approved by a   
   judge on Tuesday, saves Black $2 million in fines previously assessed   
   against him in October.   
      
   In exchange, Black agreed to drop his appeal and accept the allegations   
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   that he misled shareholders.   
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   Black, who once owned Britain's biggest-selling quality newspaper, The   
   Daily Telegraph, is set to face Canadian securities officials on Friday.   
      
   His legal battles began in 2004 when he was accused of siphoning off   
   tens of millions of dollars from the sale of newspapers owned by   
   Hollinger International, his holding company. Criminal charges were laid   
   a year later.   
      
   Black, a prolific writer and historian in his own right, vehemently   
   maintained his innocence and launched a series of libel lawsuits in   
   Canada to strike back at the detractors he blames for destroying his   
   once vast empire.   
      
   But years of legal battles -- which went all the way up to the US   
   Supreme Court -- failed to fully clear his name, although he did manage   
   to greatly reduce his prison time by clearing himself of many of the   
   charges.   
      
   Montreal-born Black, 68, renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2001   
   after a spat with then prime minister Jean Chretien who protested the   
   media owner's peerage to Britain's House of Lords.   
      
   At its peak Black's newspaper group was one of the largest media empires   
   in the world, with revenues in the billions of dollars and global daily   
   circulation in the millions.   
      
   As well as the Telegraph in London the group included the Chicago   
   Sun-Times, Canada's National Post, and the Jerusalem Post.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)