Real Estate Central

NEW YORK, July 1 /PRNewswire/ — Conrad M. Black announces that he has
settled a two year old civil lawsuit by his former real estate broker. The
case, Sotheby’s International Realty, Inc. v. Conrad M. Black, was filed in
the Southern District of New York in March 2006 and scheduled for a bench
trial before the Honorable Judge Gerard E. Lynch the week of June 9th. The
terms of the settlement are confidential.

In the lawsuit, Black claimed that, inter alia, the United States
Attorney’s Office in Chicago had improperly seized the proceeds from the
sale of his Park Avenue, New York City, apartment. He claimed that the
government coordinated with the buyers of the apartment to be at the
October 2005 New York City closing, so they could issue seizure warrants to
have him forfeit over $9 million; all prior to the time Black was even
criminally charged with any wrongdoing. Black believed the forfeiture
improper, and the jury in the subsequent criminal trial against him in 2007
in Chicago, agreed. They acquitted him of all charges alleging
improprieties with respect to the New York City apartment. The unrelated
charges on which he was convicted were affirmed on appeal.

Black’s civil trial attorney, Marc D. Powers, of Baker Hostetler,
stated that Black believes the government seized these apartment funds to
deprive him of having sufficient liquid funds to retain nationally
recognized counsel, Williams & Connolly, to defend against criminal charges
brought the following month, in November 2005.

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[Via Real Estate Newswire]