 THE CHARGES
Lord Black and three other former executives of Hollinger International Inc. face a 17-count criminal indictment that includes charges of fraud, racketeering, money laundering, obstruction of justice and tax evasion.
Lord Black is looking at a maximum jail sentence of up to 100 years if convicted. He could also be ordered to forfeit close to $100m in personal property and pay fines exceeding $10m.
Lord Black, 62, and the others have steadfastly proclaimed their innocence and pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
THE CASE
The case centres on a series of newspaper sales by Hollinger, a Chicago-based company that Lord Black controlled through two Canadian businesses. Starting around 1998, Hollinger began selling off a large part of its newspaper holdings, including virtually all of its papers in Canada. Prosecutors allege that Lord Black and the others diverted money from the sales - $84m in total - to themselves under the guise of 'non-compete payments'.
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| David Radler, Black’s right-hand man, has agreed to co-operate in return for a short jail term |
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It's also alleged Black and his wife, Barbara Amiel, used Hollinger money to cover a variety of personal expenses such as $2,700 worth of opera tickets, $2,500 on handbags and nearly $25,000 for 'summer drinks'.
Jury selection for the Chicago trial begins on March 14. The trial is expected to last at least three months, with jurors having to plough through thousands of pages of documents and listen to dozens of witnesses.
THE WITNESSES
One of the main witnesses for the prosecution will be David Radler, Lord Black's right-hand man for more than 30 years. They got into the newspaper business together in Quebec in 1969 and built Hollinger into a newspaper chain that spanned Canada (the National Post), the US (the Chicago Sun-Times), Britain (the Telegraph) and Israel (the Jerusalem Post). Radler, a detail man who keeps every scrap of paper, once boasted that he'd run 600 newspapers in his career.
Radler, 64, quietly began co-operating with prosecutors in late 2004 and in September 2005 he reached a plea agreement. Under  |
