Garth Drabinsky

SHAMEometer rating out of 100:
91

Who:

Canadian cinema and theatre mogul who, with business partner Myron Gottlieb, cooked the books of their ailing company, Livent, in the 90s, and bilked investors of approximately C$500 million. Convicted on March 25 in Toronto.

Shamelessness:

Called a "tyrant" by many. For instance, would chew out his cinema employees for leaving (God forbid) kernels of popcorn on the lobby floor. Officially labelled a crook after the March 25 ruling by Ontario Superior Court Justice Mary Lou Benotto who found Drabinsky and Gottlieb guilty of fraud and forgery in their running of their company Livent Inc. Both face prison terms of up to 14 years.

Drabinsky & co. took kickbacks, and manipulated the grosses to make their theatrical shows look more profitable than they really were. Livent accountants joked about being fitted for pinstripe suits, because they'd all likely go to jail. (Note: Another member of The Hall of SHAMEless, Conrad Black, sat on the Livent board.) Meanwhile, shareholders, musicians and artists lost money or never got paid.

Furthermore, Drabinsky slapped libel suits against critics. Most notably in 1995 against Alex Winch, then a Toronto investment analyst, who wrote a letter to Forbes magazine accusing Livent's accounting of being a tad aggressive. Drabinsky slapped Winch with a $10-million libel suit. Winch chose to settle rather than face ruin, but the ordeal cost him $350,000.

Judge Benotto's Ruling Shames Drabinsky:

“The exponential growth of the company was analogous to an athlete taking a performance-enhancing drug. The result may be spectacular, but the means involve cheating.”

Mitigating Factor:

Opened the world's first multiplex cinema (at Toronto's Eaton Centre in 1979), and in the 90s produced a string of hits in Canada and on Broadway including Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Phantom of the Opera and a revival of Show Boat. Drabinsky made Toronto the third most important centre in the world for live theatre, which makes his downfall all the more tragic. If not a shame, then a pity.

More reading:

http://www.nytimes.com/specials/ragtime/drabinsky.html

CONRAD BLACK

SHAMEometer rating out of 100:
92

Who: Newspaper magnate, freelance Canadian and professional snob.

Once CEO of Hollinger International, Inc. which published major newspapers including The Daily Telegraph (UK), The Chicago Sun Times, The Jerusalem Post, The National Post, and hundreds of community newspapers in North America; and for a spell was the the third biggest newspaper magnate in the world.

In 2003, following investor complaints, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused Black and his partners of running a "corporate kleptocracy." Translation: he bilked his investors. Black resigned as CEO and was charged with mail and wire fraud and obstruction of justice. In July 2007, Black was convicted in Illinois U.S. District Court and sentenced to serve 78 months in federal prison, and pay Hollinger $6.1 million plus a fine of $125,000. (Black was found guilty of diverting funds for personal benefit from money due Hollinger International when the company sold certain publishing assets. He also obstructed justice by taking possession of documents to which he was not entitled:)



Shameless:

1) Black remains unrepentant about how he ran Hollinger (into the ground), and denies any wrongdoing on his part. (For more, please see “denial” in the Oxford Dictionary.)

2) Despite being a published writer and former newspaper publisher, Black has sued numerous journalists whose views about him he did not agree with entirely.

3) In 2001, Black renounced his citizenship in the "oppressive little world" of Canada, where he was born, educated and his family prospered. Perhaps owing to a change of heart, Mr. Black has yet to denounce his Order of Canada (or the Canadian government hasn't had the guts to revoke it from a convicted criminal who isn't even a Canadian citizen anymore since he's busy serving time in an American prison ).



Shameless Quotes:
"If saintly men like Gandhi could choose to clean latrines, and Thomas More could voluntarily wear a hair shirt, this experience won't kill me."

Psychological Analysis:
"Now when Uncle Conrad likens himself to the assassinated Mahatma, the apostle of India, that is mere hubris. But when he compares himself to England's greatest Catholic martyr, a man of saintly honour if ruthless conviction, this is truly weird."
- Robert Fisk, The Independent



Mitigating Factor:
Has a sense of humour – and until October 2013 he's gonna need one.