Black plans for ‘all contingencies’ as jury out on fraud

FORMER media mogul Conrad Black said he has “put everything in place for all contingencies” as the jury in his $60 million (€44m) fraud trial deliberates for an eighth day.

Black and other Hollinger International executives are accused of stealing $60m from the company’s shareholders, a court in Chicago, Illinois, has heard.

In an interview with the National Post in Canada, the 62-year-old said he believed he got a fair trial from judge Amy St Eve, but it would be “impolitic” to explain why he feels he didn’t get the trial he expected.

Asked if he thought he had got a fair trial, he said: “Out of the judge, yes. With the jury, we’ll have to see. You don’t know what is going to happen. You cannot presume upon the jury.”

The former Daily Telegraph owner and chief executive of the Hollinger newspaper empire said he had thought about prison but refused to talk about it further.

“We’re putting everything in place for all contingencies,” he said.

He faces life in jail and fines of millions of dollars if convicted on all counts.

The $60m mainly came from the sale of hundreds of US and Canadian regional newspapers between 1998 and 2001, in which buyers paid large sums in return for agreements Hollinger would not compete with the new owners, the court heard.