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...
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