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Conrad Black

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Financier

The Resume

    (August 25, 1944- )
    Born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada
    Baron Black of Crossharbour
    Founder and former CEO of print media empire Hollinger International
    Investigated for defrauding Hollinger shareholders (2003)
    Found guilty of one count of obstruction of justice and two of tax fraud (July 13, 2007)
    Sentenced to 6.5 years in a federal prison (December 10, 2007)
    Wrote ‘Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Champion of Freedom’ (2003) and ‘The Invincible Quest: the Life of Richard Milhous Nixon’ (2007)
    Married to journalist Barbara Amiel
    Released from Florida prison and deported to Canada (May 4, 2012)

Why he might be annoying:

    He’s a pompous ass who thought himself above the law.
    While in prep school, he was expelled for stealing and selling exam papers.
    He called Canada a ‘backwater.’
    Well before the Hollinger case, he had a long history of shady business practices.
    He fined his newspaper staff for wasting paper if they gave him written complaints.
    He typically deals with criticism by threatening to sue.
    He renounced his Canada citizenship to accept a British peerage after Prime Minister Chretien refused to let him take it.
    When his legal troubles in the US began, he tried to regain his Canadian citizenship.
    For months he dismissed all accusations of wrongdoing as ‘the envy of pygmies.’
    He gave the press the finger on the first day of his 2007 trial.
    The Canadian government's decision to grant him a temporary resident permit after his release from American jail proved controversial with Canadians.

Why he might not be annoying:

    The media often compares him to Citizen Kane.
    He had a lonely childhood.
    He bought Generals Motors shares at age eight.
    Some felt Chretien overstepped his bounds in denying Black his peerage.
    At its peak, Hollinger owned over 400 newspapers, including The Daily Telegraph and the Chicago Sun Times.
    Although he was initially accused of stealing 80 million dollars, this amount was reduced to 6 million.
    His spendthrift wife may have driven him into serious debt.
    His high society friends abandoned him as his legal problems mounted.
    The public and the press judged him as much for his arrogance as his actual crimes.
    He is a respected historian who wrote a well regarded biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Credit: Georgina


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 24 Votes: 54.17% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 21 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 280 Votes: 52.14% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 17 Votes: 52.94% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 16 Votes: 68.75% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 32 Votes: 53.12% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 17 Votes: 58.82% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 223 Votes: 81.17% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 65 Votes: 75.38% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 160 Votes: 66.88% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 88 Votes: 61.36% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 128 Votes: 74.22% Annoying