Judge demands more details of Black's finances

A judge reviewing whether Lord Black misrepresented his assets while meeting bail conditions in his fraud and racketeering case demanded more information from a lawyer for the former publisher.

In Chicago, US District Judge Amy St Eve raised questions about significant differences in the value of some of Black’s assets in a court-ordered revised financial statement this week compared with the original statement last year.

She set a July 21 deadline for lawyer Ed Genson to explain in detail, among other things, how the estimated value of former Daily Telegraph owner Black’s shares in Canada-based Horizon Operations could have increased from $1.5m (€1.2m) to $10.5m (€8.2m) since November.

The judge also asked for a list of assets of Conrad Black Capital Corporation, his personal holding company, and details about Black’s income. She said she wanted to know how he was able to pay expenses that appear to run over €157,000 a month, excluding his home in Palm Beach, Florida, and include €7,000 for a gardener and €6,300 for property taxes.

Mr Genson bristled at any suggestion by federal prosecutors that Lord Black had deliberately undervalued his holdings last year while detailing the €15.9 in assets that he would forfeit if he failed to show up in court.

“To suggest that this money was in secret is nonsense,” he told the judge. Mr Genson accused Assistant US Attorney Eric Sussman of making such accusations to get “on the front page”.

Black, who headed the Hollinger newspaper empire, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he plundered millions of dollars from Hollinger International Inc. He is due to go to trial next March.

Prosecutors last month asked Judge St Eve to order him to put up more collateral or have his bail revoked, arguing that he gave them false and misleading information about the extent of his assets.

Hollinger International’s holdings once included the Daily Telegraph, The Jerusalem Post and Canada’s largest newspaper group. Its last remaining major property is the Chicago Sun-Times, and the company voted last month to change its name to Sun-Times Media Group Inc, effective from July 17.