Despite the incessant adulations heaped upon Chicago US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, he has consistently proven to be a usurper of Constitutional rights and an exceedingly political prosecutor.
Fitzgerald?s prosecution of Black represents a Spitzer-esque attack on private enterprise, using federal code as a dubious blunt instrument of intimidation. In most cases, this intimidation has yielded impressively [...]

Continue reading " Fitzgerald - Unsafe At Any Speed? "

Though most of the trail will revolve around the Government?s mail fraud charges against Black related to non-compete payments, the deadly dagger hanging over the heads of the defense table is the Racketeering charge.
For almost 4 decades now, Federal prosecutors have perverted RICO into a menacing legal beast that subverts our basic freedoms and denies [...]

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The first witness of the prosecution is Gordon Paris, current CEO of Sun Times group (formerly Hollinger Intl), who replaced Black in late 2003.
The cross examination by Ed Greenspan, the most famous lawyer in Canada and longtime consigliere to Lord Black was, to but it mildly, combative.
Amazingly, the former investment banker was ushered into the [...]

Continue reading " Paris on the Stand…Not that Paris "

FRAUD - Non-Competes
Thought the alleged perquisite abuses garner more publicity, the non-competes form the largest and most potentially damaging elements of the US Attorney?s case. So persuasive is Genson?s simple yet erudite defense on this point that one must truly ponder the underlying motives of the Government for bringing these scurrilous charges (theses on this [...]

Continue reading " The Defense’s Case Against Fraud "

Legendary Chicago defense attorney Ed Genson delivered his typical forceful yet folksy opening statement/rebuttal. The physical frailties that afflict Genson belie the tenacity and force of his intellect and spirit. Black chose well, especially as a foil to his usual counsel Ed Greenspan, a patrician and debonair Toronto barrister (who bears an off-putting resemblance to [...]

Continue reading " Team Black Comes Out Swinging "

Well worth noting that Her Honor is a very attractive woman, particularly when viewed in light of her colleagues on the Federal bench. Judge St. Eve would find little trouble besting Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg for the cover girl of the annual “Girls of the Federal Court” Calendar, despite Ruth’s superior rank. Judge St. Eve’s [...]

Continue reading " Honorable (and hot) Amy St. Eve "

“You are sitting in a room with four men who stole 60 million dollars” So began the prosecutor, accusing Black and executives with corporate grand larceny.
FRAUD
The Prosecution alleges that the non-competes paid by Can West for the Canadian newspapers and by various U.S. buyers to American Publishing were intended as corporate payments to Hollinger Intl., [...]

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Today the trial commenced in earnest, with the Government delivering a scathing, and almost unbelievably inarticulate, opening statement of accusations. Asst. US Attorney Jeffrey Cramer proved, even if he proved nothing else, that in style points the Government can never compete with the private sector.
Cramer?s dry, banal recitation of the USA?s case v. Black et [...]

Continue reading " The Prosecution Opens "