Text of a statement made in court by Conrad Black just prior to him being sentenced in Chicago, Dec. 10, 2007:
As this is a sentencing hearing, I think there is not very much that would be appropriate for me to add to what Mr. (defence lawyer Jeffrey) Steinback has said on my behalf and to the filings counsel has made for me.
We have the verdicts we have and we can't retry this case. I'll only say that I would have no difficulty at all responding to the most recent remarks of the prosecutor and of Mr. Fox (Eugene Fox, a managing partner at Cardinal Capital Corp., who delivered a victim impact statement).
And I would say, however, very emphatically, that I have never once uttered one disrespectful word about this Court, your Honour personally, the jurors or the process. And some of the reflections I may have had on the prosecutors, I think, are not particularly relevant here.
The other thing I'd like to say is I do wish to express very profound regret and sadness at the severe hardship inflicted upon all of the shareholders, including a great many employees, by the evaporation of $1.85 billion of shareholder value under my successors. The stock price was between $80 and $22 -- $18, I should say, and $22 -- for over a year after I retired; and, what has happened subsequently, much of it was because of the pursuit of activities that, as I was still a director, I warned my colleagues against.
Your Honour's not judging business performance, but I would not wish to leave that fact unmentioned.
I also want to express deep regret for the medical problems that these proceedings have caused in the families of the defendants, including my own.
Beyond that, I think it only remains for me to thank your Honour for the unfailing courtesy and efficiency with which you conducted this trial. Prior to arriving under your jurisdiction, I was the subject of an almost universal presumption of guilt, including the theory that I violated a Canadian court order -- which I did not do and have not been accused of doing -- an almost unbroken presumption of guilt on all counts and in almost all courts, both of law and of public opinion.
Thank you, your Honour.
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