A federal prosecutor ripped into media mogul Conrad Black and other Hollinger International executives today, saying “they systematically stole €44m” from the shareholders and created a phoney paper trail to cover their tracks.

Payments totalling $9.5m (€6.9m) that prosecutors say belonged to Hollinger International shareholders went instead to media mogul Conrad Black and four other executives, a company memo showed.

FBI agents seized nearly €7.3m in proceeds from the sale of embattled media baron Conrad Black's apartment on New York’s Park Avenue.