Conrad Black Wants Earlier Trial Date

By: (AP) Former media tycoon Conrad Black said Friday he's eager to get on with his fraud and racketeering trial and reiterated his defiance at the case he has called a massive smear job against him.

Black isn't scheduled to go on trial until March 2007 on charges related to the alleged looting of more than $84 million from Hollinger International Inc. by high-level executives. But he said after making his third required appearance in U.S. District Court that he wishes it could start sooner.

"I want to get on with it," he told reporters after the status hearing. "I want to expose this case for the complete fraud that it is."

Prosecutors had wanted to go to trial as soon as this fall, but St. Eve set it for March 5, 2007, because of a conflict with a terrorism trial she is due to preside over this fall.

Attorneys for the two sides jockeyed over whether prosecutors followed proper procedure in subpoenaing documents and personal effects of Black and co-defendant John Boultbee, Hollinger's former chief financial officer, from Toronto-based parent firm Hollinger Inc.

Black's attorneys asked to have the subpoena quashed, claiming the request didn't go through Canadian authorities as required under a U.S.-Canada treaty.

Prosecutors withdrew the subpoena, acknowledging they did not fully adhere to the treaty because they wanted to move swiftly out of concern the documents would go missing. Judge Amy St. Eve ordered that no one attempt to remove the documents until the treaty has been complied with.

At issue are 13 boxes of documents that Black is alleged to have taken from Hollinger Inc.'s offices last May in defiance of a Canadian court order that no documents be removed without permission. Black subsequently returned the documents.

Black, Boultbee and two other former Hollinger executives -- Peter Atkinson and Mark Kipnis -- are charged with using their positions to plunder millions from Chicago-based Hollinger International, which formerly owned newspapers in Canada, London and Jerusalem and now holds Chicago-area papers. All have pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges.

If convicted on all counts, Black faces a maximum sentence of 95 years in prison, $7 million in fines and forfeiture of money that allegedly was obtained fraudulently.

The judge scheduled the next status hearing in the case for April 21.