APNewsBreak: Mogul to pay $2.5M in settlement

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook billionaire Sean Parker's lavish, $10 million Big Sur wedding got even more expensive Monday.

The California Coastal Commission and Parker said they have reached a $2.5 million settlement to pay for coastal conservation programs after the Napster co-founder built a large movie-set-like wedding site in an ecologically sensitive area of Big Sur without proper permits.

The parties reached the agreement after officials were tipped that Parker had built a cottage, fake ruins, waterfalls, staircases and a huge dance floor near iconic redwoods and a stream with threatened steelhead trout.

The commission learned about the construction at a closed campground owned by Ventana Inn & Spa after a county investigation spurred by neighbor complaints. The Ventana is negotiating a separate settlement for allowing the construction to occur.

"Despite the continued unauthorized closure of the campground to the public, earlier this year, the property owner entered into an agreement giving Sean Parker exclusive use of the campground for several months to construct a sizeable wedding venue," the commission's staff wrote in a report.

Ventana spokesman Francisco Carrasco did not return a call or email seeking comment.

The Ventana is located within the coastal zone, an area regulated by the commission, an independent state agency that oversees coastal development. Any significant construction within the zone has to be permitted.

When staff inspected, they found the temporary structures had already been built, but they allowed the wedding to proceed anyway.

The commission started negotiating a settlement with Parker and his representatives instead of shutting the event down.

"Mr. Parker has been extremely cooperative and actively involved in working with Coastal Commission staff to reach this resolution which both addresses our Coastal Act concerns and will result in greater coastal access and conservation in the Big Sur and Monterey Peninsula areas," Charles Lester, the commission's executive director, said in a statement.

Parker, 33, the former president of Facebook Inc. who was portrayed by Justin Timberlake in the movie "The Social Network," married singer-songwriter Alexandra Lenas on Saturday in a ceremony with gowns and sets made by a designer for the "Lord of the Rings" films.

Rick Zbur, Parker's representative during negotiations with the commission, said Parker worked diligently to address the issue once it came to his attention.

"So as soon as he was made aware of the Coastal Commission's concerns, he immediately stepped forward to discuss how he could protect the coastal area and resolve these issues," Zbur said in an email.

Parker also asked his guests, many of them extremely wealthy entrepreneurs and celebrities, to donate to Save the Redwoods or the California League of Conservation Voters in lieu of giving gifts, according to a program.

Since Parker did not get permits for the construction, commission staff will oversee the breakdown of the vast set so no damage is done to the environment. The commission said no major damage had yet been done, but it wanted to reach a deal quickly so the violating structures could be removed safely.

"Normally (negotiations) happen over a couple of months, but because of the nature of the violations here we wanted to get it out as soon as possible so Mr. Parker could go ahead and do the work the way it should be done," said Lisa Haage, the commission's chief of enforcement.

Money from the agreement may be used to purchase public easements and hiking trails in the Big Sur area and as grants for nonprofits doing conservation projects.

Also, as part of the settlement, Parker offered to produce and distribute a public education video or create a mobile app aimed at helping to identify areas where the public can access the coast.

Haage said the commission is hopeful Parker's assistance will help it spread more information about California's coastal resources.

In a statement, Parker said he was delighted to help the commission achieve its conservation goals and to help Big Sur area businesses.

The commission will vote on the agreement at its next meeting scheduled June 14.

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Follow Jason Dearen on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/JHDearen . Associated Press writer Alicia Chang in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

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Ex-media mogul Conrad Black sent back to prison (Reuters)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Friday ordered former media baron Conrad Black back to prison for 13 more months, cutting his original 6 1/2-year sentence nearly in half for remaining fraud and obstruction of justice convictions.

U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve, in pronouncing a total sentence of 42 months, told the 66-year-old member of Britain's House of Lords she was swayed by letters from fellow inmates and other factors in departing from federal guidelines calling for a stiffer resentencing.

Black's wife, Barbara Amiel Black, collapsed immediately in her seat after St. Eve ruled, and was assisted out of the courtroom by medical personnel.

She later walked out of the courthouse supported on her husband's arm, wearing sunglasses. A U.S. marshal who had rushed to her side said she was fine, and possibly dehydrated.

After serving 29 months in prison, Black was released in July 2010 based on a successful appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court narrowed the scope of the federal honest services law used to help convict him and an appeals court subsequently voided two of three fraud counts against him. That necessitated the resentencing on Friday.

"It's a very serious crime," St. Eve told the silver-haired former chief executive of newspaper publishing giant Hollinger International Inc.

"Corporate executives need to be sent a message that the company's money belongs to the company, and its shareholders," she said. "You had a duty of trust. The shareholders put their trust in you. And you violated that trust."

In departing from federal guidelines calling for Black to be resentenced to between 51 and 63 months, St. Eve cited his conduct in prison, his charitable work with the family foundation, his advanced age and the unlikelihood he would ever commit another crime.

The letters from inmates who served time with Black at Coleman prison in Florida said he had been generous with his time and tutelage.

Before the sentencing, Black spoke at length, and with typical eloquence, about his sense of the case that began some eight years ago with an accusation he and his colleagues had engaged in a $500 million "kleptocracy."

The Canadian-born Black said he had been unfairly portrayed as a "guerrilla warrior" objecting to the U.S. justice system, countering, "I have been absolutely submissive to legal authority."

'I DO BELIEVE IN REPENTANCE'

He stopped short of expressing remorse, saying he regretted the loss of $2 billion in shareholder value caused by fallout from the case against him and four other Hollinger executives.

Black was convicted of scheming with partner David Radler and other executives to siphon off millions of dollars in proceeds from the sales of newspapers as they unwound Hollinger, once the world's third-largest publisher of English-language newspapers. It operated the Chicago Sun-Times, Jerusalem Post, London's Daily Telegraph and dozens of other newspapers across North America.

"I do believe in repentance ... and punishment," he said. "It is right that people inevitably pay for their mistakes."

He quoted Mark Twain, Rudyard Kipling and other notables, and said he had become a patient in psychoanalysis since his release in July, learning that "it is practically impossible to suppress conscientious remorse."

Black said a lawsuit he filed in Canada against the authors of a report condemning his reign at Hollinger was near a settlement, and would result in a payment to him for the "scurrilous charges" contained in it.

St. Eve said she would grant Black up to two months before he must surrender to finish out his sentence, noting that unlike U.S. citizens convicted of financial crimes, he was not eligible for a low-security prison "camp." He also is ineligible for a halfway house before release.

As a British citizen convicted of a felony, Black will be forced to leave the United States on release, but he may be allowed to return to Canada.

"I have always tried to take success like a gentleman and disappointment like a man," Black said.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Ex-Media Mogul Conrad Black sent back to prison (Reuters)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Convicted former media baron Conrad Black was ordered back to prison by a U.S. judge on Friday to continue serving time on fraud counts.

Judge Amy St. Eve of U.S. District Court, who sentenced Black to 6-1/2 years on fraud and obstruction of justice convictions following his 2007 trial, sentenced the 66-year-old member of Britain's House of Lords to 42 months, including the 29 months already served.

Black's wife, Barbara Amiel Black, collapsed immediately after St. Eve ruled, and was assisted out of the courtroom by medical personnel.

Black was released from prison in July 2010 based on a successful appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in which the court narrowed the scope of the federal honest services law used to help convict him.

(Reporting by Andrew Stern; Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Greg McCune)

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