Black takes 5th in SEC investigation

[chiburb]

Embattled press baron Conrad Black was in Chicago Monday, but he wasn't talking.

At least not to federal regulators.

As expected, Black declined to answer questions from the Securities and Exchange Commission, citing the 5th Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.

The SEC is probing Black's role in the financial scandal unfolding at Hollinger International Inc., the Black-controlled holding company that owns the Chicago Sun-Times, the London Daily Telegraph, the Jerusalem Post and a number of other newspapers.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0312230258dec23,1,4135334.story?coll=chi-business-hed

[salin]

1. Hollinger... isn't Richard Perle somehow involved with this company?

Board Member? Some ownership/investment?

[chiburb]

2. He's on the board...

And also runs an 'investment fund' that Black (and others) contributed to. That will be the real story here: that Black & Perle profited from the Iraq invasion which Black supported editorially in his papers.

[chiburb]

3. Krugman on Black (must read!):

Now he's a lord in trouble. Hollinger, it turns out, has paid hundreds of millions in fees to companies controlled by Lord Black and to individual executives. Some of these payments were secret and were unauthorized by the board. Even if viewed purely as a corporate scandal, this is pretty major stuff.

But the Black affair isn't just about bad corporate governance. It goes without saying that Lord Black, like Rupert Murdoch, has used his media empire to promote a conservative political agenda. The Telegraph, in particular, has a habit of "finding" documents of unproven authenticity that just happen to support neoconservative rationales for war. We're now learning that Lord Black also used his control of Hollinger to reward friends, including journalists, who share his political views.

Inevitably the list includes both Henry Kissinger and Richard Perle, whom I hereby propose (stealing an idea from Slate's Tim Noah) as the subject of a parlor game about cronyism, along the lines of "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon." The former Pentagon official, who has close ties to Donald Rumsfeld, has enthusiastically embraced the advantages of being both a businessman and a policy insider. His prestigious if part-time official position on the Defense Policy Board provides him with credibility, and at least the suggestion of both inside information and policy influence. This has led to lucrative consulting deals, and has attracted investments in his venture capital fund, Trireme Partners.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/23/opinion/23KRUG.html

[salin]

4. a little swine with that perle... eh. n/t