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- BUSINESS, Page 63Business NotesCRIMENo Longer a Stout Fellow
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- What the press had dubbed the City of London's "trial of the
- century" ended last week in the conviction of four of Britain's
- most prominent businessmen. Former Guinness PLC chairman Ernest
- Saunders was sentenced to five years in prison for
- masterminding an illegal operation to boost the stock price of
- the famed $11.6 billion brewing and distilling group and thus
- helping the company win its successful $5.23 billion takeover
- battle for Distillers, the Scottish liquor maker. Investigators
- first became aware of the Guinness scheme, described as one
- of the biggest financial scandals in British history, when U.S.
- inside-trader Ivan Boesky disclosed some of the details.
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- For their supporting roles in the affair, Gerald Ronson, the
- chairman of Heron International, a multinational real estate
- and service-station empire, was sentenced to a year in jail and
- a $9.7 million fine, while stockbroker Anthony Parnes drew a
- 2 1/2-year term. A fourth defendant, financier Sir Jack Lyons,
- will be sentenced later this month. Unlike Boesky, Saunders
- will no longer have millions when he emerges from prison:
- before sentencing, he was forced to apply for the British
- equivalent of welfare to survive.
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