Abe_Oltulever's Blog

Fallen media tycoon Conrad Black was convicted Friday of mail fraud and obstruction of justice, but a jury acquitted him of wire fraud, racketeering and several other counts. Black, 62, is a member of the British House of Lords

Mr. Black, the former head of the Hollinger International Inc. newspaper empire, had been accused of swindling shareholders out of millions of dollars.

Prosecutors accused Mr. Black of billing shareholders $42,000 for his wife's birthday party at New York's restaurant La Grenouille, swindling the company in a $3 million Park Avenue apartment sale and taking the corporate jet on a two-week vacation to Bora Bora in French Polynesia. Mr. Black's attorneys said the bills were justified business expenses and that he paid his fair share in the apartment deal.

But the heart of the case against the husky, silver-haired publishing millionaire focused on a large-scale selloff starting in 1998 of Hollinger community papers that were published across the U.S. and Canada.

Hollinger International once owned community papers across the United States and Canada as well as the Chicago Sun-Times, the Toronto-based National Post, The Daily Telegraph of London and Israel's Jerusalem Post. The Sun-Times is the only large paper remaining and the name of the company has been changed to Sun-Times News Group.

Companies that bought newspapers in seven such deals paid millions of dollars to Hollinger International, with headquarters in Chicago, in return for promises it would not go into competition with the new owners. Mr. Black was charged with illegally diverting millions of dollars in those so-called non-compete payments to himself, Mr. Boultbee, Mr. Atkinson and the longtime No.2 man in the Hollinger International empire, F. David Radler.

Some of the non-compete payments also went to a smaller Toronto corporation, Hollinger Inc., which was controlled by Black and in turn owned a controlling interest in the Chicago-based Hollinger International.

U.S. District Court Judge Gladys Kessler lifted a restraining order, allowing Deborah Jeane Palfrey, 51, to distribute pages of phone records that she and her attorney said contains up to 15,000 names.  Palfrey, who faces, federal racketeering and conspiracy charges, says she runs a legal escort service. Prosecutors say the business netted more than $2 million from 1993 to 2006.

Louisiana Sen. David VItter apologized Monday for his telephone number showing up on the old phone records of Pamela Martin and Associates, the alleged prostitution ring run in the nation's capital by Deborah Jeane Palfrey.

Palfrey's attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley, said he did not know that Vitter's number was on the list, and was surprised by the admission.

"I'm stunned that someone would be apologizing for this," he said.

A Harvard graduate and Rhodes scholar, Vitter, 46, said "This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible," Vitter said in a statement.

"Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and my wife in confession and marriage counseling. Out of respect for my family, I will keep my discussion of the matter there --with God and them. But I certainly offer my deep and sincere apologies to all I have disappointed and let down in any way," he wrote.

 Vitter, was elected to his current office in 2004, becoming the first Republican from Louisiana elected to the Senate since Reconstruction. He represented Louisiana's 1st Congressional District in the House from 1999 to 2004.

Vitter and his wife, Wendy, live in Metairie, La., with their four children.