Black Watch: Today’s Top Stories
This morning the British press was back on the case with a vengeance, the Times, The Telegraph and The Guardian all reporting from the courtroom. Typically, their attention drifts toward voyeuristic fodder. The Times’ James Bone, a master of this dark art, jumps on a laundry list of Lady Black’s extravagances:
“In a day-long closing argument after three months of testimony, the prosecution showed the jury Lord Black’s bank statement to establish his motive for allegedly looting $60 million (£30 million) from the newspaper group he ran.
“The November 2000 statement revealed that Lord Black paid off millions of dollars to creditors after receiving an allegedly unauthorised $4.3 million payment. The outgoing transfers included $2.6 million to the jewellers Graff for a 26-carat diamond ring for his wife, Barbara Amiel, as well as $604,000 for an antique pearl and diamond bow brooch and five- and six-figure payments to the fashion designers Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Balmain and Jean Paul Gaultier.”
Prosecution sums up case in Black trial [Financial Times]Prosecution mocks Lord Black as fraud trial enters its final stages [Times of London]Prosecutors urge the jury to see through Black’s ‘phoney paper trail’ [Guardian] ‘Greedy Black needed money to pay bills’ [Telegraph]Closing arguments begin in Conrad Black trial [National Post]Greenspan begins closing arguments in Black case [Globe and Mail]’Rules didn’t matter to Black’ [Chicago Sun-Times]
