Lord Black indicted for fraud
Conrad Black, the former owner of the Daily Telegraph, has been indicted on $51.8 million fraud charges by a US federal grand jury.
Lord Black of Crossharbour, the former chairman and chief executive officer of Hollinger International, was charged in an 11-count unsealed indictment in Chicago on Thursday.
Prosecutors issued a warrant for the 61-year-old millionaire’s arrest and said they would seek extradition if he declined to surrender himself.
However, Lord Black – who gave up Canadian citizenship in return for a life peerage and seat in the upper House in 2001 – has issued a statement strongly denying all of the allegations brought before him.
His lawyer, Edward Greenspan, said: “Conrad Black asserts his innocence without qualification with respect to each and every one of the charges set forth in the indictment.
“It will be shown that he has, at all times, acted within the law. He is confident, if given a full and fair opportunity to defend himself, he will be found innocent.”
The chief financial officer of his private firm Ravelston, John Boultbee, has also been indicted, as have Hollingers’ general counsel Peter Atkinson and corporate counsel Mark Kipnis.
One of Black’s indictments covered assets to CanWest Global Communications in 2000, and the allegations pertain to the diversion of $51.8 million from Hollinger International’s sale of assets.
Another allegation centred on Lord Black and his co-defendants’ siphoning off of millions of dollars to fund lavish lifestyles, including extensive use of corporate jets.
Lord Black once controlled the Daily Telegraph, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Jerusalem Post and nearly two thirds of Canada’s dailies, making him one of one of the most powerful press barons in the world.
