Banker tells how Black ran Hollinger empire

A businessman who steered Conrad Black’s Hollinger newspaper empire through a storm of lawsuits and investigations told a court that the former media mogul “was very knowledgeable” about the finances of the company he is accused of swindling out of £44m (€65m).

Investment banker Gordon Paris, who took over Hollinger International from former Daily Telegraph boss Black in 2003, was first to take the stand at the trial in Chicago of the peer and three other ex-Hollinger executives.