U.S. v. Black
Citation | 526 F.Supp.2d 870 |
Decision Date | 10 December 2007 |
Docket Number | No. 05 CR 727.,05 CR 727. |
Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Conrad M. BLACK, John A. Boultbee, Peter Y. Atkinson, and Mark S. Kipnis, Defendants. |
Court | United States District Courts. 7th Circuit. United States District Court (Northern District of Illinois) |
Edward Marvin Genson, Julianna Aviva Greenspan, Genson and Gillespie, Marc William Martin, Marc W. Martin, Ltd., Patrick Alan Tuite, Arnstein & Lehr, LLP, Daniel T. Hartnett, Royal B. Martin, Martin, Brown & Sullivan, Ltd., Chicago, IL, Edward L. Greenspan, Greenspan & White, Toronto, CA, Steven Y. Yurowitz, Gustave H. Newman, Richard A. Greenberg, Newman & Greenberg, Donald A. Corbett, Dickstein Shapiro LLP, Benito Romano, Ian K. Hochman, Michael S. Schachter, Sharon M. Blaskey, Willkie, Farr & Gallagher, New York, NY, for Defendants.
AMY J. ST. EVE, District Judge.
On July 13, 2007, following approximately four months of trial, a jury convicted Defendants Conrad M. Black, Peter Y. Atkinson, John A. Boultbee, and Mark S. Kipnis of three counts of mail fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341, including the deprivation of the intangible right to honest services, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1346.1 Currently before the Court is the government's Motion for a Preliminary Order of Forfeiture (the "Motion"), which seeks to hold Defendants Black, Boultbee, Atkinson, and Kipnis jointly and severally liable for the forfeiture of $16,925,000 pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2461(c), 18 U.S.C. § 981(a)(1)(C), and Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32.2. For the reasons stated below, the Court grants the motion in part and denies it in part.
As the Court has detailed previously, the Superseding Information (the "Information") charged Defendants with participating in a scheme to defraud Hollinger International and its shareholders in connection with the sale of International's so-called "U.S. community newspapers," a process that began in May 1998 and continued through 2001. See United States v. Black, 469 F.Supp.2d 513 (N.D.Ill.2006).2 The key entities involved in the scheme were (1) Hollinger International, Inc. ("International"), a Delaware corporation that was publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange, (2) Hollinger Inc. ("Inc."), a Canadian corporation that was publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and (3) The Ravelston Corporation, Ltd. ("Ravelston"), a privately-held Canadian company. (R. 407-1, Information at ¶ 1.) Defendants Black and Boultbee, and coschemer Radler were officers of all three companies and each had ownership interests in Ravleston.3 (Id.) Defendants Atkinson and Kipnis were attorneys and officers of International. (Id.) Atkinson also was an officer of Inc. and had an ownership stake in Ravelston. (Id.) As charged, Defendants' scheme aimed to obtain money and property from International, and to deprive International and its shareholders of Defendants' honest services.
The Information alleged that Defendants used various methods to accomplish the charged scheme. In particular, the Information charged that Defendants: (1) improperly diverted money from a non-competition agreement with International; (2) improperly inserted Inc. into the non-competition agreements associated with International's sale of assets; (3) improperly inserted themselves as individual officers into non-competition agreements in connection with the sale of International's assets; and (4) created non-competition agreements that were not connected to the sale of the community newspapers. (Id. at 8-27.) Count One of the Information sets out the specifics of the entire charged scheme, which included the following transactions:
American Trucker and Mine and Quarry Trader: On May 11, 1998, International, through its subsidiary, sold American Trucker and Mine and Quarry Trader to Intertec Publishing Corp. for $75 million. (Id. at 10, ¶ 4.) The closing documents provided that $2 million would be paid to International to obtain a non-competition agreement. (Id.; Gov't Exs. Trucker 7, 8.) In January 1999, approximately eight (8) months after the sale, Black, Boultbee, and Radler decided to divert to Inc. the $2 million that International received for the American Trucker non-competition agreement. (Id. at 10, ¶ 5.)
The Information describes each of these transactions in detail in Count One, but the mailing associated with that count pertains only to the February 2001 Federal Express delivery of the APC non-competition agreements. (R. 407-1, Information at 22.) The remaining counts related to this scheme charged mailings or wire communications pertaining to the following transactions: Forum (Count II), Paxton (Count III), CNHI(II) (Counts IV and V), APC (Count VI), and the Supplemental Payments (Count VII). (Id.) Although the American Trucker, CNHI(I), and Horizon transactions formed part of the alleged scheme, there were no counts charging specific mailings or wire communications associated with those transactions. (Id.; see also, R. 915-1, Gov't Reply at 5.) The jury convicted Defendants on Counts I, VI, and VII4—counts that were either not related to a sale of newspapers (Counts I and VI) or were separate from the transaction and not pursuant to non-competition agreements (Count VII). Although Defendants had the right to a jury trial on certain forfeiture issues following the jury's verdict, each Defendant waived that right and agreed instead to have the Court resolve issues relating to forfeiture. (R. 811-1, 820-1, 824-1, 830-1.) See also United States v. Tedder, 403 F.3d 836, 841 (7th Cir.2005)
As required under Fed.R.Crim.P, 32.2, the Information provided notice of the government's intent to seek forfeiture "as part of any sentence imposed in connection with a conviction on Counts One through Seven." (R. 407-1, Information at 72.) Specifically, Forfeiture Allegation One of the Information charged that:
[D]efendants [] did engage hi violations of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 1341 1343 thereby subjecting to forfeiture to the United...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
United States v. Tartaglione, CRIMINAL ACTION NO. 15-491
...where its forensic accountant proved that only 33.5% of the funds were gross proceeds of the crime); United States v. Black, 526 F. Supp. 2d 870, 887-890 (N.D. Ill. 2007) (holding that government failed to establish a sufficient nexus between properties and proceeds for forfeiture under § 9......
-
United States v. Patel
...v. Edelkind, 467 F.3d 791, 799 (1st Cir.2006) (likewise concluding that § 2461(c) is a “bridging statute”); United States v. Black, 526 F.Supp.2d 870, 878 (N.D.Ill.2007). Section 2461's “bridging” or “gap-filling” function is further revealed by considering the statute's legislative history......
-
United States v. Emor
...seeks to forfeit, the government has not shown the requisite nexus justifying forfeiture. Id. at 29 (quoting United States v. Black, 526 F.Supp.2d 870, 883 (N.D.Ill.2007)). In the Court's view, however, the evidence demonstrates that while the Core Ventures transactions involved a different......
-
Langbord v. U.S. Dep't of the Treasury
...forfeitable proceeds but not to the RICO or money laundering offense.H.R.Rep. No. 105–358, at 35 (1997); see also United States v. Black, 526 F.Supp.2d 870, 878 (N.D.Ill.2007) (explaining that one goal of CAFRA was to extend federal forfeiture law so as to encompass crimes that frequently g......