By: E&P Staff Last month, former newspaper mogul Conrad Black was taken by surprise by FBI agents who showed up at the closing for the sale of his deluxe Manhattan co-op, and seized the $8.9 million in proceeds. Tuesday, Black pulled a legal ambush of his lawyers and had his former friend, Peter C. Newman, served with a C$2.1 million (U.S.$1.78 million) libel suit as he arrived at the 100th anniversary part of the Canadian newsweekly Maclean's in Toronto.
Black and his wife Barbara Amiel Black also attended the party, celebrating the magazine where Newman is a contributing editor.
Black filed his lawsuit in Ontario Superior Court claiming he was libeled in Newman's 2004 autobiography, "There Be Dragons: Telling Tales of People, Passion and Power."
According to a story in Thursday's National Post by reporter Theresa Tedesco, the suit alleges the book "falsely and maliciously" says Black engaged "in a wide range of criminal acts spanning many years, including mail and wire fraud, interstate transportation of stolen property and money laundering."
The story quoted Black's lawyer as saying the suit had been filed so long after the book's publication in part because of the difficulty locating Newman. He could not be reached by E&P for comment.
Much of the offending chapter -- titled, "Black Magic: How Conrad Black became a Weapon of Mass Self-Destruction" -- concerns Black's well-known legal problems.
The chapter also includes what the National Post referred to as "salacious details" of the Blacks' sexual behavior. Newman is a former family friend who hired Barbara Amiel as a columnist in the 1970s. The lawsuit describes Newman as acting in a manner that was "vindictive, high-handed, contemptuous and demonstrated reckless and deliberate disregard and even enthusiasm for the damage that might be done to the good name of" Black, the newspaper reported.
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