Conrad Black s Greed, Hubris Are Lavishly Detailed in New Book Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- When Conrad Black goes on trial in Inc., a claim that he threw a party for his wife costing $40,000 promises to be just one of the highlights.
Black, Tom Bower describes how the former chairman and chief executive officer of Hollinger International, a lord who once enjoyed the use of a Gulfstream IV jet plane, many mansions and expensive friends, ended up fighting to stay out of jail.
Hollinger assets at less than fair market value, while reaping millions for themselves. Bower relates a tale of overweening ambition, greed, and, ultimately, hubris.
I spoke with him by telephone from his home in London.
Campion: Should we take the title, ``Outrageous Fortune, literally?
Bower: It is pretty outrageous.
How it was accumulated was pretty honest, probably. But how it was then spent on behalf of the Blacks rather than the shareholders is pretty outrageous, and will be the subject of a trial in March next year.
hatchet job -- a very good hatchet job, but a hatchet job.
Are there some axes grinding there?
Bower: Not at all. When the book describes how a man quite the company, I m not quite sure how you find the redeeming features.
That s my problem with these critics. They seem to think that the expense of the shareholders. And I just can t find that good Campion: Black faces trial in the U.
S. in March on charges of fraud and ethical corruption -- allegations he denies. Why do you think this Canadian, who has vast business holdings in the U.
K., was tripped up in the U.S.
?
Bower: Well, because he moved all his operations, the center of it, from London to New York, because the regulators in London would not let him do what he wanted, i.e.
, take money out of the company for his own benefit. In fact, he put the profits into his pocket up in Toronto.
might have been in London, and certainly than in Toronto.
So, that was a terrible mistake by him to move from London to New York. He thought America was terrific. But he didn t realize the shareholders are far more alert than he anticipated.
burden?
Bower: Well, I think they did. Of course, it s based on the committee inquiry by Richard Breeden, the former chairman of the U.
S. Securities and Exchange Commission, who investigated all this. So, it s not my invention.
to the company people who had terrifically high reputations, like Henry Kissinger, Governor Thompson of Chicago, Marie-Josee Kravis -- the wife of Henry Kravis -- and others, Richard Perle, Richard Burt. They trusted Conrad Black. They were prepared to approve sales and payments which he asked them to approve.
They approved them without investigating the detail.
the beneficiary, and that he was charging up to $40 million a year in fees and expenses when, in fact, the costs were about $1 million.
Campion: Do you expect he ll go to jail?
Bower: Well, if he is found guilty, he certainly will. Clearly, that s the judgment of many people who have read through Breeden and who have read through my book.
Campion: What about Lady Black, the former Barbara Amiel?
Do you dislike her?
arrogance. I don t like people who believe that they re above the law and that they can treat normal, average punters with disdain.
Conrad Black had a certain charm. He did try in some ways to be genial. Barbara was imperious, and perhaps remains imperious.
She was remarkably contemptible.
She was a director of all the companies. She charged expenses to all the companies.
She withdrew salary from all those companies. She signed the annual accounts for those companies. If you say I dislike her, it s nothing personal.
Campion: You do get really personal. You talk about her buying spike heels to disguise her big feet.
Bower: Well, put it like this: She is a woman who has used her sexual attraction, has used her bosom, has used her body and her appearance deliberately as -- well, as she calls it herself -- her sexual armor.
I mean, Barbara Amiel quite admits in many of her writings how she used her looks to advance her cause.
Campion: Before you wrote the book, Black, hearing that you intended to do so, sent you that now famous e-mail in which he predicted you d write a heart-warming story of two sleazy, contemptible people, who enjoyed a fraudulent and unjust elevation, were exposed, and ground to powder in a just system. Would you quibble with any of those characterizations?
Bower: Not a word. No, I think he got it right. In fact, it s remarkable how well he knows himself.
Published by HarperCollins, ``Outrageous Fortune appears the U.K. (436 pages, 20 pounds, $26.
95).
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