black hawk down

I stole the headline from the Guardian’s leader but wouldn’t you, too? There is only one thing left unsaid about the fall of Conrad Black, and that is the monstrous, unfathomable greed that lies behind it. Here is a man who has removedfrom his public companies more than $100m over seven years — quite openly — on “management fees” paid to his private company. These were distressing enough for outside investors to contemplate, but, on top of that, it turns out that another $19m has been passed to him and his friends, off the books. Part of that figure was $7.4m to Black personally in the last three years.