Chicago: Judge Amy St Eve disappointed federal prosecutors with the relative lenience of the sentence she passed Monday on fallen newspaper tycoon Lord Conrad Black - a mere seventy-eight months compared with the government's demand of between 16-24 years.
His Lordship, still professing innocence, has lodged an appeal and remains free on bail of $21 million (€14.27m; £10.27m). He has been instructed to report to the federal prison camp near Eglin Air Force Base in Florida in twelve weeks time.
Fining Black a meager $125,000, Judge St Eve also instructed him to repay $6.1m stolen from shareholders in Hollinger International, admonishing him school-ma'am style: "Frankly I cannot understand how someone of your stature, on top of a media empire, could commit such acts."
Opined Black's biographer Tom Bower: "It's a lenient sentence - the judge was clearly very tolerant of his remorseless tirades."
Data sourced from BBC Online (UK); additional content by WARC staff
