Conrad Black arrives at the Chicago court on June 26 as closing arguments wrapped up in his trial. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

Conrad Black, former Hollinger International CEO, faces 13 charges — nine counts of wire and mail fraud, two counts of tax fraud, one count of obstruction of justice, and one of racketeering. A charge of money laundering was dropped May 30. He faces a maximum of 91 years in jail and fines and forfeitures of almost $100 million US if convicted on all counts.

Jack Boultbee, former Hollinger chief financial officer, faces 11 charges — nine counts of wire and mail fraud, and two counts of tax fraud. He faces the possibility of up to 51 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

Peter Atkinson, former executive vice-president of Hollinger, faces seven charges: six counts of wire and mail fraud, and one count of tax fraud. He faces a possible 33 years in jail if convicted on all counts.

Mark Kipnis, Hollinger's former general counsel, faces 11 charges — nine counts of wire and mail fraud, and two counts of tax fraud. He faces a possible 51 years in prison on conviction.

The indictment lists 17 counts — most list multiple defendants, but some are targeting only Conrad Black. Count 13 — a charge of money-laundering against Black alone — was dropped during the trial.

Ravelston Inc., a company controlled by Conrad Black, was also named in the first eight counts. Ravelston, through its court-appointed receiver, pleaded guilty to a single count of mail fraud in March 2007 and agreed to pay a $7-million US fine.

Count One - Mail fraud

Defendants: Black, Boultbee, Atkinson, Kipnis

Allegation: This is the first of nine counts dealing with non-compete payments and outlines what the prosecution calls a "scheme" to defraud Hollinger shareholders by siphoning off money from Hollinger newspaper sales to Black et al as non-compete payments. This count deals with the sending by Federal Express of $2.9 million US in cheques, which were non-competition payments for the sale of Hollinger assets to American Publishing Co.

Maximum sentence: Five years and $250,000 US fine

Count Two - Mail fraud

Defendant: Kipnis

Allegation: The prosecution says Kipnis engaged in fraud by sending an envelope via Federal Express from Hollinger headquarters in Chicago to Forum Communications in Fargo, N.D. The envelope contained documents relating to Hollinger's sale of newspapers to Forum, including a non-competition agreement, wire transfer instructions and an asset purchase agreement.

Maximum sentence: Five years and $250,000 US fine

Count Three - Wire fraud

Defendant: Kipnis

Allegation: The indictment accused Kipnis of ordering the sending by "wire and radio communications" (in this case, an e-mail) of a draft asset purchase agreement about Hollinger's sale of newspaper assets to PMG Acquisition Corp.

Maximum sentence: Five years and $250,000 US fine

Count Four - Wire fraud

Defendant: Kipnis

Allegation: In this count, Kipnis is alleged to have authorized the faxing of wire transfer instructions to Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. — a North Carolina-based company that had bought newspaper assets from Hollinger.

Maximum sentence: Five years and $250,000 US fine

Count Five - Mail fraud

Defendants: Black, Boultbee, Atkinson, Kipnis

Allegation: This count relates to the sending of an envelope by "an interstate carrier" that contained a $4.3-million US non-compete cheque made out to David Radler — the former Hollinger president who pleaded guilty in 2006 to a single count of fraud and was the prosecution's key witness against Black and the others.

Maximum sentence: Five years and $250,000 US fine

Count Six - Mail fraud

Defendants: Black, Boultbee, Atkinson, Kipnis

Allegation: This count relates to the shipping of an envelope containing non-competition agreements with American Publishing Company.

Maximum sentence: Five years and $250,000 US fine

Count Seven - Mail fraud

Defendants: Black, Boultbee, Atkinson, Kipnis

Allegation: Count Seven relates to the shipping of an envelope containing cheques totalling $600,000 US, which were non-competition payments for the four defendants and David Radler.

Maximum sentence: Five years and $250,000 US fine

Count Eight - Wire fraud

Defendants: Black, Boultbee, Atkinson, Kipnis

Allegation: This is the first of two counts dealing with the sale of most of Hollinger's Canadian newspapers to CanWest Global. The U.S. government alleges that Hollinger shareholders were defrauded of $51.8 million US from the sale through improper non-competition payments. This charge relates to the faxing of a letter and a memorandum that said a previous document's inaccurate representations about the sale were "inadvertent" deviations. The prosecution says the inaccuracies were not inadvertent.

Maximum sentence: Five years and $250,000 US fine

Count Nine - Mail fraud

Defendants: Black, Boultbee, Atkinson, Kipnis

Allegation: This count relates to the sending by Federal Express of an envelope from Hollinger to members of its audit committee that contained details of the non-competition payments in the CanWest transaction.

Maximum sentence: Five years and $250,000 US fine

Count 10 - Wire fraud

Defendants: Black, Boultbee

Allegation: This is the first of three counts dealing with the alleged abuse of corporate perks — specifically having Hollinger pay for all the cost of a trip to Bora Bora taken by Conrad Black, having Hollinger pay for two-thirds of the costs of a $62,000 US birthday party for Black's wife, and the below-market purchase by Black from Hollinger of his $3-million US Manhattan apartment. Count 10 specifically relates to the wire transfer of Hollinger's 2001 proxy statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission — a document that the prosecution alleges contained misleading statements about the perks.

Maximum sentence: Five years and $250,000 fine

Count 11 - Wire fraud

Defendants: Black, Boultbee

Allegation: This count relates to the same perk abuse allegations cited above, except the alleged wire fraud concerns the sending of Hollinger's 2002 proxy statement to the SEC.

Maximum sentence: Five years and $250,000 fine

Count 12 - Wire fraud

Defendants: Black, Boultbee

Allegation: This count relates to the wire transfer from Black's CIBC account in Toronto to Hollinger's Chicago account of $2.15 million US, which represented the balance of what he owed on the $3 million US New York apartment he'd bought from Hollinger International.

Maximum sentence: Five years and $250,000 fine

Count 13 - Money laundering

Defendant: Black

Charge was withdrawn May 30, 2007

Count 14 - Obstruction of justice

Defendant: Black

Allegation: The U.S. government says Black's removal of 13 boxes of documents from his Toronto office was an attempt to hide records from an SEC probe and a U.S. grand jury.

Maximum sentence: 20 years and $250,000 US fine

Count 15 - Racketeering

Defendant: Black

Allegation: This charge alleges that Hollinger International, as run by Black, was in effect an enterprise whose purpose was to enrich Black and others through fraud. The indictment lists seven separate acts that the U.S. government says amount to a "pattern of racketeering activity."

Maximum penalty: 20 years and $250,000 US fine

Count 16 - Tax fraud

Defendants: Black, Boultbee, Kipnis

Allegation: The prosecution says the defendants under-reported Hollinger International's 1999 income by $13 million US, money that should have been declared by Hollinger but wasn't because it was designated for non-compete payments. Peter Atkinson was originally included in this charge. But the prosecution dropped Atkinson from that count on June 27.

Maximum penalty: Three years and $100,000 US fine

Count 17 - Tax fraud

Defendants: Black, Boultbee, Atkinson, Kipnis

Allegation: Count 17 alleges that the defendants knowingly filed a false corporate tax return for Hollinger International for the 2000 tax year by under-reporting its income by $16 million US.

Maximum penalty: Three years and $100,000 US fine.

Forfeiture

The indictment also includes four separate forfeiture allegations that are calling for the defendants to return tens of millions of dollars. The fourth allegation, against Conrad Black alone, seeks the forfeiture of $92 million US from Black — including the proceeds from his apartment in New York, his house in Florida, a $2.6-million US diamond ring, and $600,000 US worth of antiques and jewelry.

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