Conrad Black, Canadian historian and author
Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour KCSG (born 25 August 1944), is a Canadian-born British former newspaper publisher, businessperson, writer and convicted fraudster.His father was businessman George Montegu Black II, who had significant holdings in Canadian manufacturing, retail and media businesses through part-ownership of the holding company Ravelston Corporation. In 1978, two years after their father's death, Conrad and his older brother Montegu took majority control of Ravelston. Over the next seven years, Conrad Black sold off most of their non-media holdings in order to focus on newspaper publishing. Black controlled Hollinger International, once the world's third-largest English-language newspaper empire, which published The Daily Telegraph (UK), Chicago Sun-Times (U.S.), The Jerusalem Post (Israel), National Post (Canada), and hundreds of community newspapers in North America, before controversy erupted over the sale of some of the company's assets.
He was granted a peerage in 2001 and because of the Nickle Resolution, which bans British honours for Canadian citizens, gave up his Canadian citizenship in order to accept the title.
In 2007, he was convicted on four counts of fraud in U.S. District Court in Chicago. While two of the criminal fraud charges were overturned on appeal, a conviction for felony fraud and obstruction of justice was upheld in 2010 and he was re-sentenced to 42 months in prison and a fine of $125,000. In 2018, Black wrote a flattering biography of U.S. President Donald Trump. In 2019, Trump granted him a presidential pardon.Black is a longtime columnist and author, including having written a column for the National Post since he founded it in 1998. He has written over ten books, mostly in the fields of Canadian and American history, including biographies of Quebec premier Maurice Duplessis and U.S. presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Richard Nixon and Trump, as well as two memoirs. He has also hosted two interview shows on the Canadian cable network VisionTV. He is a political conservative, and belonged to the UK's Conservative Party, but also has some idiosyncratic views, including his support for Roosevelt's New Deal.