“You are sitting in a room with four men who stole 60 million dollars” So began the prosecutor, accusing Black and executives with corporate grand larceny.

FRAUD
The Prosecution alleges that the non-competes paid by Can West for the Canadian newspapers and by various U.S. buyers to American Publishing were intended as corporate payments to Hollinger Intl., not payments to Hollinger Inc and Ravelston, owned primarily by Lord Black and David Radler (latter now government witness). The crux of the prosecution case will be testimony from US buyers of newspapers that they never intended to pay Black and Radler personally for non-competes and, in most cases, required no non-competes at all.

Therefore, by accepting nearly all the non-compete proceeds personally, Black and Radler pocketed a far larger share than the 35% of Intl. Black owned in public stock, and avoiding any tax consequence as Canadian code ignores non-compete income.

FRAUD - PERKS
The Government alleges that Black improperly charged Hollinger for 3 major personal expenditures:
1. Posh New York Apartment, which Black later swapped with Hollinger for an allegedly far less valuable apartment at ?even? market value, thereby pocketing over $1 Million.
2. New York birthday soiree for his wife Barbara Amiel Black, billing Hollinger for 2/3 of the $62,000 tab
3. Private flight to and from Bora Bora with his wife for $600,000.

OBSTRUCTION
Attempting to remove documents from Hollinger Inc. offices at 10 Toronto St. in defiance of SEC and Canadian court orders. The prosecution presented video surveillance evidence of Black carrying boxes away after the building had closed

TAXES/LAUNDERING
These charges only relevant if jury finds above fraud charges credible, otherwise no such crimes occurred.

RICO
The most potentially damaging of all the charges, as federal prosecutors increasingly use RICO to force far higher (up to triple) sentences and civil damages for criminals who acted in concert with others. Much more on this topic in later posts.