By: (AP) Embattled media baron Conrad Black will need to be interviewed as part of the investigation into financial wrongdoing at Hollinger Inc., the inspector looking into related-party transactions at the Canadian holding company said Tuesday.
Peter Griffin, a lawyer for court-appointed inspector Ernst and Young, told a hearing in Toronto today that he would need to meet with Black and David Radler, former Hollinger president, although the first task would be four months of reviewing Hollinger documents.
Black, Radler, and former Hollinger executive vice president Jack Boultbee, who Griffin also wants to talk with, have declined to be interviewed.
They have argued any information they may give could be used against them in U.S. regulatory or criminal proceedings and violate their rights under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit in November against Black, who is also the ousted CEO of Hollinger International Inc., and Radler accusing the men of using the newspaper publisher as their "personal piggy bank" over a period of four years.
Hollinger Inc. is the parent company of Chicago-based Hollinger International which owns the Chicago Sun-Times and The Jerusalem Post.
Catalyst Fund General Partner I Inc., an unhappy shareholder in Hollinger Inc., had sought the review by the inspector last year.
Ernst and Young was appointed by Ontario Superior Court Justice Colin Campbell in October to look into related party deals at Hollinger.
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