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Arrest warrant issued for indicted Conrad Black

CHICAGO - Conrad Black, who once controlled the Hollinger International media empire, was charged with three other executives Thursday with looting millions of dollars from the company, cheating on taxes and dipping into corporate coffers to finance his lavish lifestyle.

"What has gone on here is the grossest abuse by directors and insiders," U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said in unveiling the 11-count indictment.

An arrest warrant was issued for the 61-year-old Black, a former Canadian citizen who is a member of the British House of Lords. Fitzgerald said that if he fails to appear before Judge Amy St. Eve to answer the charges, the government will seek to have him extradited.

Black's attorney, Edward Greenspan, said Black is confident he will be found innocent "if given a full and fair opportunity to defend himself."

"Conrad Black asserts his innocence without qualification with respect to each and every one of the charges set forth in the indictment," Greenspan said. "It will be shown that he has, at all times, acted within the law."

Hollinger International Inc. owns the Chicago Sun-Times and other publications in the United States and Canada and formerly controlled the Daily Telegraph of London and the Jerusalem Post.

The indictment charged that Hollinger International's $2.1-billion sale of several hundred U.S. and Canadian publishing properties was rife with fraud.

The indictment comes two months after former Sun-Times publisher David Radler's guilty plea to charges of taking part in a scheme to siphon off $32-million in proceeds from the sale of newspaper properties in the United States and Canada through bogus contracts with purchasers.

Radler agreed to cooperate in the government's ongoing inquiry.

Black also was charged with defrauding Hollinger through bogus non-compete agreements.

The indictment said he used a similar bogus agreement to siphon $51.8-million out of Hollinger International's multibillion-dollar sale of assets in 2000 to CanWestGlobal Communications Corp.

In addition, the indictment said Black used company cash to bankroll a lifestyle that included Park Avenue apartments in New York and a vacation in Bora Bora in French Polynesia.

It said Black and his wife used a corporate jet to fly to Bora Bora in July 200. When company auditors asked him to reimburse them for the travel, he told them "no such outcome is acceptable," the indictment said.

He said he used $42,000 in Hollinger International money to pay for a $62,000 surprise birthday party for his wife in December 2000 at a New York restaurant, La Grenouille. The tab included 80 dinners at $195 each and $13,935 for champagne and other wine.

According to the indictment, another defendant, John "Jack" Boultbee, 62, of Toronto swindled Hollinger International out of millions of dollars by having the company pay for the renovation of a Park Avenue apartment for Black's servants and buying a Park Avenue apartment from the company at far below the fair price.

Another defendant is the Ravelston Corp. Ltd, a Canadian company that Black used to gain control of Hollinger International.

[Last modified November 18, 2005, 01:27:15]