Black Watch: Today’s Top Stories

Filed under “L” this morning for “Likely to fall on deaf ears” is a report in the Globe saying that Peter Atkinson’s lawyers have submitted a pre-sentencing plea to Judge Amy St. Eve arguing that Atkinson’s financial liability is far less than the government suggests, and that “If the judge agrees that the fraud amount is sizable, it could ‘significantly impair [Mr. Atkinson’s] ability to be transferred to Canada under the International Prisoner Transfer Program’… That’s because before Mr. Atkinson could even apply for a transfer, he would have to settle all financial obligations, which would include forfeiture. ‘If Mr. Atkinson were held jointly and severally liable for a multi-million dollar forfeiture amount…his possible transfer to Canada may be unfairly impeded,’ the filing noted.”

Call me an old cynic, but I suspect that a judge who wouldn’t allow Conrad Black to travel back to his home and (temporarily abandoned) native land for fear he might hide behind the thinnest possible filament of an appeal to avoid extradition isn’t likely to stay her hand because she might impinge a convicted felon’s “ability to be transferred to Canada under the International Prisoner Transfer Program.” On this matter there are no truer words than his Lordship’s own. It is a “hardball league” down there.

Black’s lawyers dispute fraud amount: Source [The Globe and Mail]

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