Former media tycoon prepares to face trial frenzy

AT Hollinger International’s 2003 annual meeting, Conrad Black tried to disarm critics who alleged that he and top executives enriched themselves at shareholders’ expense.

Mr Black, then chief executive of Hollinger, owner of the Chicago Sun-Times, London’s Daily Telegraph and the Jerusalem Post, said a committee would study the allegations.

“Like all fads, corporate governance has its zealots and its tendency to excess,” Mr Black told investors at New York’s Metropolitan Club.