{"product_id":"outrageous-fortune-the-rise-and-ruin-of-conrad-and-lady-black-9780061146145","title":"Outrageous Fortune: The Rise and Ruin of Conrad and Lady Black","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe rise and fall of media tycoon Conrad Black and his journalist wife  Barbara Amiel  is one of the great stories of the modern business world. In Outrageous Fortune  London-based journalist Tom Bower reveals how Conrad and Lady Black used other peoples money to finance a billionaires lifestyle  winning friends and influence in London and New York along the way. Their story of overweening ambition and greed is a modern-day classic of hubris. Born into considerable wealth in Canada  Conrad Black bought and sold (but never effectively managed) several businesses  from mining and tractors to broadcasting companies and newspapers. In 1985 Blacks holding com-pany  Hollinger  bought the Telegraph Group  the British newspaper publishing conglomerate. In the years that followed  Black additionally became the proprietor of the Chicago Sun-Times  the Jerusalem Post  and a host of other magazines and newspapers in the English-speaking world. In 1992 Conrad married Barbara Amiel  who later famously said  \"I have an extravagance that knows no bounds.\" Besotted by his wife  he began living way beyond his means. Fabulous parties  jewelry  clothes  and multiple mansions followed  and by 2001 Black had renounced his Canadian citizenshipwhich he called \"an impediment to my progress in another more amenable jurisdiction\"in order to become a life peer in the British House of Lords. But the scheming deceptive duos lies came crashing down when  in November 2003  an American report accused Black of \"outright fraud \" \"ethical corruption \" and \"corporate kleptocracy.\" Black was forced out as Hollingers chief executive  and two years later he was charged with eight counts of fraudallegations that he will vigorously deny at his trial in Chicago  beginning in March of 2007. Based on hundreds of interviews with bankers  politicians  journalists  mega-deal makers  and close friends of Conrad and Lady Black  Outrageous Fortune is packed with lively anecdotes and salacious gossip. It is a hugely enter-taining and engrossing account of gullibility in high places.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45648039903285,"sku":"ByrdShop_0061146145","price":53.57,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780061146145.jpg?v=1781707289","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/outrageous-fortune-the-rise-and-ruin-of-conrad-and-lady-black-9780061146145","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}