They’re a litigious bunch: Richard Perle, Michael Ledeen, and now Conrad Black:
- Conrad Black said Friday he will file a $871 million libel suit in Canada against the Hollinger International Inc. special committee that issued a report contending he and other former top executives comprised a “corporate kleptocracy” whose “self-righteous and aggressive looting” took $400 million in unearned money.
All members of the special committee were served with legal notice of the lawsuit, Black said, including Hollinger International’s interim Chairman and CEO Gordon Paris. Richard C. Breeden, the former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission chairman who authored the committee’s scathing 513-page report, was also named as a defendant, along with Paul Healey, vice president of investor relations.
The lawsuit, which will be filed in an Ontario court, will seek Canadian $1.1 billion, the statement said. This is the second libel action Black has filed in Canada against Hollinger International figures. A suit filed in February demands approximately U.S.$675 million in damages.
Breeden’s report stated that “Black and (former Sun-Times Publisher F. David Radler) made it their business to line their pockets at the expense of Hollinger almost every day, in almost every way possible. … Ethical corruption was a defining characteristic of the leadership team.” The report documented what it said were excessive and unauthorized payments to top executives, and characterized the star-studded Hollinger board as “inattentive” to the abuses.
In his statement, Black said the payments “were justifiable and disclosed by sophisticated and fully informed independent directors.”
So is Lord Black going to sue Richard Perle? Or could these two chickenhawks resolve their differences in a more dignified manner, say, a pillow fight? Stay tuned.