Black resigns over claim

CONRAD BLACK has quit as chief executive officer of Hollinger International Inc, and has put the company up for sale after an internal investigation found he misled shareholders over $32 million paid to executives.

The company’s publications include The Daily Telegraph. The payments included $7.2 million Black received personally.

Hollinger, whose holdings include the Chicago Sun-Times, hired Lazard LLC to find a buyer, the company said. Black, David Radler (who quit as Hollinger’s president and vice chairman) and executive vice president Peter Atkinson agreed to return $15 million plus interest.

Black’s departure marks his defeat in a two-year battle with minority shareholders who challenged him to justify his compensation and payments.

It also heralds the end of a 37-year career in which Black, 59, transformed Chicago- based Hollinger from a two-man partnership with a pair of Quebec weeklies to a newspaper empire that once stretched from Australia to Israel.

“I will be devoting my attention in the coming months to achieving a successful outcome for all Hollinger shareholders,” Black said in the statement.

Hollinger named Gordon Paris, an investment banker with New York’s Berenson & Co and a Hollinger director since May, as interim president and CEO.

The firm, which manages $7.8 billion, also questioned $202.7 million in management fees Hollinger International paid Black, his fellow executives and other companies he controls from 1995 to 2002.