Caught on tape, Conrad Black returns boxes

By Jeffrey Hodgson

TORONTO (Reuters) - Conrad Black has returned a dozen boxes he was videotaped removing without permission from his former Toronto headquarters, a spokesman for the one-time newspaper baron said on Thursday.

The spokesman said the boxes contained Black’s own property, but he had turned them over to a court appointed inspector to assuage any concerns.

The incident comes as the former proprietor of the Daily Telegraph newspaper continues to face the scrutiny of courts and regulators in Canada and the United States.

Black, a member of the House of Lords, had been ordered by an Ontario court not to remove any documents from the Toronto headquarters of Hollinger Inc. , a holding company he once used to control his newspaper empire. He quit as chief executive and chairman of the firm last year.

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But a videotape obtained by Canadian media shows Black and two assistants taking the boxes out of the building’s back entrance. Press reports said the boxes were removed last Friday.

"He agreed to return the boxes and they’ve been returned to Ernst & Young," spokesman Jim Badenhausen said.

"They were personal effects. I don’t have any other detail beyond that. There may have been papers, but they were things he believed it was OK for him to remove from the office."

Ontario Superior Court Judge Colin Campbell, acting on the request of a minority shareholder, appointed Ernst & Young last year to investigate Hollinger Inc.’s financial affairs.

Black’s newspaper empire began to unravel in late 2003, when he resigned under pressure as chief executive of Chicago Sun-Times publisher Hollinger International Inc. and was fired as chairman the following year.

An internal Hollinger International investigation uncovered $32 million (17.5 million pounds) in payments to him and others, which the company said were unauthorized. It has since sued him and others for $542 million.

Black resigned as an officer and director of Hollinger Inc. last year as part of a failed attempt to take the company private.

Now controlled by its independent directors, Hollinger Inc. has sued Black, his companies and allies for more than C$636 million.

Last year, U.S. regulators alleged in a civil suit that Black, longtime ally David Radler and Hollinger Inc. "cheated and defrauded" Hollinger International shareholders. Those charges have not been proven in court.

A criminal investigation has also been launched in the United States.

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