V-day for my favorite corporate crook, Lord Conrad Black!

After a three-month trial and 12 days of jury deliberations, last Friday proved to be V-day for media mogul and aristocratic arriviste, Lord Conrad Black. (He famously renounced his Canadian citizenship in order to be granted a Lordship by HM Elizabeth II – Queen of Great Britain.)

Unfortunately for him, the “V” in this case did not stand for victory. Instead, it represented the verdict (of guilty on fraud and obstruction of justice charges) rendered by a Chicago jury, which will now strip Lord Black – in the most ignominious fashion possible – of all that remains of his ill-gotten gains and royal pretensions.

Of course, given the celebrated heights to which Black’s personal pride and corporate arrogance soared, which I derided in previous articles here and here, his spectacular fall from grace can only reinforce the proverb that:

Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.

In a 16-count indictment, Black was charged with lording over Hollinger International as if it were his private fiefdom. Hollinger, of course, is a media conglomerate that includes among its holdings such reputable newspapers as the Chicago Sun-Times, the London Daily Telegraph and the Jerusalem Post.

But Black evidently used millions from the revenues this public company generated to fund his feudal lifestyle. And even though he exhibited enviable business skills and a prodigious intellect as Hollinger’s chairman, Black also perfected and flaunted the art of living as the most ostentatious and imperious corporate crook in the history of western civilization (notwithstanding Dennis Kozlowski).

Despite appearances, however, the gossip among the chattering classes is that he has always been little more than a consort to his wife, Barbara Amiel Black. And no woman in the corporate world or high society displayed more ruthless cunning in pursuit of (rich) men and social prestige than the thrice-divorced Amiel did.

Indeed, one would have to think of the Shakespearean character Lady Macbeth or of that royal diva Marie Antoinette to get an appreciation of how much Amiel’s insatiable powerlust and garish excesses were precipitating factors in Black’s tragic downfall. But this quote should suffice to indicate what a piece of work this woman is:

To complete the analogy, however, I suppose Black, 62, should be grateful that he won’t be beheaded either by an avenging shareholder in a fit of outrage or by the state at the behest of resentful commoners who comprised his jury. Instead, he’ll be heading to the pokey. But since he’s facing as much as 35 years, he could be sentenced, in effect, to life in prison. Naturally, his lawyers have vowed to appeal.

But I have no doubt that Black will begin his descent into purgatory when he’s sentenced in November. Although his penance could commence as soon as next week when Judge Amy St Eve will determine whether he’s too much of a flight risk to remain free on his $21 million bond pending sentencing.

And frankly, it does not bode well for him on this count. Because Judge St Eve has probable cause to suspect that – having been convicted of trying to hide 13 boxes of incriminating evidence from being discovered by federal investigators – Black might now try to hide himself from being incarcerated in federal prison….

Meanwhile, Amiel, 66, is bound to fare better than her fictional and historical counterparts. Because, instead of also suffering the full measure of her husband’s tragic fate, she will remain as free as a bird. And I am convinced, beyond all doubt, that it’s only a matter of time before she resorts to what remains of her cunning and alluring charm to seduce some rich old fool – just as she stroked Black’s flaccid ego – into funding the lifestyle to which she has become accustomed.

After all, deprived of the accouterments of an opulent life, Amiel would probably prefer prison life herself. And, apropos this, the note I appended to one of my previous articles on the unweaving of Black’s tangled web of corporate kleptocracy is worth quoting here:

I’m sure her erstwhile socialite friends in Europe and North America are wondering how much longer Barbara Amiel will walk in the Payless shoes of a devoted, long-suffering wife before she files for divorce – citing not his legal woes, but Black’s inability to maintain her in the lifestyle to which she has become accustomed….

Meanwhile, Amiel is probably wondering at what point in this unfolding saga Black will do the proper thing and die (a la Ken Lay) to spare them further embarrassment, and save as much of his fortune for her to buy her way back into the good graces of rich Americans and aristocratic Britons….