Enlarge imageBy David Bailey
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The arraignment of former media baron
Conrad Black, who is charged with looting U.S.-based Hollinger
International Inc.
At a hearing in Chicago, an assistant U.S. attorney said a member of Black’s legal team had told him in a telephone conversation Monday night that Black was still looking for a criminal attorney to represent him in the case and intended to appear at the arraignment, now scheduled for November 30.
Black, 61, and three former associates last week were named
in a federal indictment on mail and wire fraud charges alleging
that they cheated stockholders through schemes involving
Hollinger International, Toronto-based holding company
Hollinger Inc.
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The indictment accuses Canadian-born Black, now a British citizen and a member of the House of Lords, of taking a corporate jet for a vacation to Bora Bora at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars and of having the company pay $42,000 of a $62,000 bill for a lavish surprise birthday party for his wife in New York.
Arraignments for co-defendants John "Jack" Boultbee, a former chief financial officer, and Peter Atkinson, who oversaw legal affairs, also were moved to November 30.
Mark Kipnis, who had been indicted in August and named in additional counts for the superseding indictment announced last week, is scheduled for arraignment on November 29. Ravelston Corp. entered a not guilty plea on Tuesday.
Kent told the court that Black’s lawyer had said that as a show of good faith, Black would stop blocking attempts to prevent Ravelston from pleading to U.S. fraud charges.
Now in receivership, closely held Ravelston was once the centre of Black’s global newspaper empire. He used it to control Hollinger Inc., which in turn controlled Hollinger International.
An Ontario court ruled in October that Ravelston’s receiver could enter a not guilty plea to U.S. fraud charges on behalf of the company.
Black opposed that decision and appealed it, but was defeated. It was reported he planned to appeal again to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Arrest warrants have been issued for Black, Boultbee and Atkinson, but officials have given them the opportunity to appear voluntarily to answer the charges. Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Last week’s indictment expanded on one announced in August that accused former Black lieutenant David Radler, Kipnis and Ravelston of diverting $32 million through various schemes involving noncompete agreements in the sale of newspapers.
Radler pleaded guilty in September to a single count of mail fraud and agreed to cooperate and testify against others. His plea deal calls for him to serve 29 months in prison and pay a $250,000 fine after the investigation concludes.
Thursday’s indictment added Black, Boultbee and Atkinson to the mix -- and a charge that $52.8 million of assets were diverted from a $2.1 billion sale of Canadian newspapers.
Prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of about $84.8 million allegedly siphoned from Hollinger International, which at one time had a sprawling empire that included flagship titles such as the Daily Telegraph in London and the Jerusalem Post, both since sold, as well as the Chicago Sun-Times.
They also seek forfeiture of about $8.6 million of net proceeds from Black’s sale of a Park Avenue apartment in New York. FBI agents seized the proceeds in October on the grounds that they were accumulated as part of a fraud scheme.
The indictment also seeks forfeiture of a Black residence in Palm Beach, Florida.
(Additional reporting by Jeffrey Hodgson in Toronto)
