Case title: U.S. v. Black et al, No. 05 CR 727, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division (Chicago).

Trial began: March 20, 2007.

Presiding judge: Amy St. Eve

The charges

Conrad Black

Former CEO of newspaper publisher Hollinger International

• Nine counts of mail and wire fraud
• One count of racketeering
• One count of obstruction of justice
• Two counts of tax fraud
• (One count of money laundering was dropped May 30)

Jack Boultbee

Former chief financial officer of Hollinger International

• Nine counts of mail and wire fraud
• Two counts of tax fraud

Peter Atkinson

Former executive vice president of Hollinger International

• Six counts of mail and wire fraud
• One count of tax fraud
• (A second count of tax fraud was dropped June 27)

Mark Kipnis

Former corporate counsel of Hollinger International

• Nine counts of mail and wire fraud
• Two counts of tax fraud

David Radler

Former Hollinger chief operating officer

• Pleaded guilty Sept. 20, 2005 to one count of mail fraud in return for testimony against Black and others. Prosecution recommends 29-month sentence.

The allegations

Conrad Black arrives at the federal courthouse in Chicago for closing arguments in his fraud and racketeering trial. (Associated Press/M. Spencer Green)

Non-compete payments

Hollinger International started selling off its extensive newspaper assets in the late 1990s in a series of transactions. The U.S. government — and star prosecution witness David Radler — allege that Black devised a scheme to improperly divert $60 million US from those sales to himself, and to Radler, Boultbee, Atkinson or companies they had an interest in. Kipnis, the prosecution alleges, facilitated the diversions.

The prosecution says the money should have gone to Hollinger International and its shareholders, but instead, was dressed up as non-compete payments. This is money the buyer of a business pays a seller in return for promising not to start up a competing business. The government alleges the non-compete deals in this case were frauds — cover stories invented to allow Black and the co-defendants to transfer tax-free money into their pockets. The fraud allegations around the sale of these newspapers is the heart of the prosecution's case.

The defence argued that non-compete agreements are routine in the newspaper business. In all these transactions, it said the payments arising out of them were legal, appropriate, disclosed to Hollinger International auditors and authorized by the board. If there was any wrongdoing, defence lawyers say, it was by David Radler, who had already pleaded guilty to fraud and who the defence accused of lying to fulfill the conditions of his plea bargain with the prosecution.

The trip to Bora Bora

In the summer of 2001, Conrad Black and his wife, Barbara Amiel Black, took the Hollinger International jet to the South Pacific island of Bora Bora for a holiday. The prosecution called that an abuse of corporate funds, since Hollinger paid for the entire cost of the plane trip — which the prosecution put at $565,000 US.

The defence says the government's calculation of the trip's cost is grossly inflated because the hourly charge for the plane included fixed costs which would be paid even if the plane sat on the ground. The defence also says Hollinger's plane policy did not differentiate between personal and business travel. Black's lawyers further argue that their client took the plane because the Hollinger audit committee had told him to because of safety and terrorism concerns.

The birthday party

In December 2000, Conrad Black threw a lavish birthday party for his wife, Barbara Amiel Black, at a posh New York restaurant. On Black's instruction, Hollinger International paid two-thirds of the $62,000 US cost. The prosecution called that yet another example of Black using Hollinger International shareholders' money to fund his lavish lifestyle.

But a defence witness testified the party was more business event than private party and said some of the guests were not close friends of the Blacks.

Black's Manhattan apartment

In 2000, Conrad Black arranged to buy his Park Avenue apartment from Hollinger International for $3 million US — a price far below its true market value, according to prosecutors.

The defence says Black spent $2 million US of his own money renovating the apartment and that was factored into the below-market purchase price.

The 13 boxes

On May 20, 2005, Conrad Black, with the help of his chauffeur, loaded his Cadillac with 13 boxes of documents from his Toronto office. At the time, an Ontario court had ordered no documents be removed from the building without the approval of the court-appointed monitor, KPMG. The removal also came the day after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission had told Black's U.S. lawyers that it would be seeking documents as part of its investigation of the company.

The removal of the boxes — which was captured on video and played for the jury — amounted to obstruction of justice, the prosecution claims.

The defence says Black's U.S. lawyers never told their client about the letter from the SEC. Black returned the boxes when told to by the court.

What's at stake

Black faces the possibility of more than 90 years in prison if convicted on all charges. The others could face lesser, but still substantial penalties. Under U.S. federal law, offenders must serve at least 85 per cent of their sentences before release is possible. Canadians jailed in the U.S. are allowed to seek a transfer to a Canadian prison, where release is possible after serving as little as one-sixth of the sentence. Radler, Boultbee, and Atkinson are Canadians. Kipnis is American.

Black renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2001 to accept a British peerage. He is a citizen of the United Kingdom.