LAWFUEL – The Law News Wire – Defence lawyers at the Conrad Black fraud trial will likely begin their case this week by telling jurors that the embattled media mogul behaved like any other media executive when he took disputed payments and is in no way the criminal prosecutors have depicted, the Montreal Gazette reports.
Black’s defence team is expected to start presenting witnesses as early as Wednesday, almost three months after the U.S. government told jurors Black and three other Hollinger International executives were “bank robbers dressed in ties and … suits.”
The trial won’t sit Monday because of the U.S. Memorial Day holiday, but will resume after that.
Black, Jack Boultbee and Peter Atkinson, stand accused of orchestrating a scheme to improperly pocket millions of dollars in fees in exchange for a promise not to compete with the buyers of Hollinger publications.
Prosecutors say the buyers never requested those agreements, and the money should have gone to shareholders.
Mark Kipnis, Hollinger’s former internal lawyer, is not accused of taking money but of facilitating the alleged fraud.
