I hope Conrad had a nice night out at the Maclean's bash on Tuesday. It must have been fun, considering he had libel papers served on Peter Newman as his old friend and author of the offending tome There Be Dragons entered the shindig.

But life is about to get a lot less fun: Conrad has been charged with criminal fraud by the U.S. Attorney's office in Chicago for some jiggery-pokery involving the finances of Hollinger International.

The amount in question is $51.8 million US (Note: updated versions put that figure at more than $80 million US).

Here's the CTV.ca story. The Toronto Star story provides links to the text of the indictment and a U.S. Dept. of Justice statement.

His lawyer Edward Greenspan says his client asserts his innocence.

(Blog statistical trivia: My 2,000th post in this forum!)