Wow. That Patrick Fitzgerald is one busy prosecutor . Firedoglake has the latest on how the Hollinger International/Conrad Black scandal may put the neoconniest of neocons Mr. Richard Perle behind bars for abetting financial chicanery:
When we last left our villain Richard Perle, fearless vampire hunter Patrick J. Fitzgerald took time off from Plame patrol to take aim at his black, bloodless heart as part of the Hollinger International scandal. Perle, as you’ll recall, was on the board of Hollinger, one of the country’s largest media empires, when big neocon chiseler Lord Conrad Black was looting it of some $540 million.
According to shareholders who are desperately trying to get their money back, Perle both enabled Black’s generosity to himself and was also one of the beneficiaries of Black’s largesse.
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Then late last week, in his dogged climb to the top of the shit heap upon which Black himself is perched, Fitzgerald managed to flip Chicago Sun-Times publisher David Radler, who has agreed to serve 29 months and turn state’s evidence.
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Anyway, as part of Radler’s deal, he’ll be cooperating with the SEC’s case that already has Perle in the crosshairs and which Fitzgerald asked to intervene in this last March.
And to make matter’s worse, Hollinger’s board just censured Perle in an internal company report, and they are reportedly suing him. Fellow board member Henry Kissinger and others settled a $50 million lawsuit with Hollinger shareholders in May, which also delightfully teases that there may criminal charges waiting for that old warmonger, too. But it is Perle who really has his neck in the noose.
Delay. Abramoff. Rove. Frist. And now Perle. Bush is going to have to issue quite a few pardons to spare the Republican Kleptocracy from spending their latter years in prison.
