Their marriage was also at issue during the 15-week trial as days of testimony focused on a vacation the Blacks took to Bora Bora and Seattle on the company plane as well as a surprise birthday party he held for her at La Grenouille in New York in December 2000 for her 60th birthday. The seating chart for the event, showing the proximity of A-listers to the Blacks, was among the exhibits entered as evidence.
She married Mr. Black in 1992 at a time when his career as owner of Britain’s largest quality newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, as well as scores of other papers around the world, was ascendant. It was his second marriage, her fourth, and has been a subject of gossip and speculation ever since — in part because Ms. Amiel can be as theatrical, erudite and bombastic as her husband.
Regardless of what happens to Mr. Black’s appeal, Ms. Amiel still faces, as a former company director, civil litigation stemming from the Hollinger International scandal. And in identifying various assets of Mr. Black’s for potential forfeiture, prosecutors have already focused on a $2.6 million ring and other gifts Mr. Black bought his wife, claiming that he transferred assets to her as the trial approached.
