Latest Breaking News

“Not since my father’s death 49 years ago have I felt such pain and seen such hurt inflicted on those I love … I cannot settle with Jane Doe and the Wigdor firm, not only because of the damage their lies have caused, but more importantly, because I don’t know how I could look my children and grandchildren in the eyes and teach them the importance of Shem Tov.”

Invoking his father’s death in a letter to Rakoff was a striking choice. Black’s father, Eli Black, had been a socially prominent New Yorker and the CEO of a global company, the Chiquita banana importer United Brands. But on 3 February 1975, Eli Black killed himself by jumping out of the window of his 44th-floor office in the Pan Am Building on Park Avenue. After his death, it was revealed that he had authorized a $2.5m bribe to the president of Honduras in a bid to get lower export taxes on bananas. When United Brands was ultimately charged with criminal conspiracy on account of the scheme, Eli Black was, according to the New York Times, posthumously named as a co‐conspirator.