Ex-Director Atkinson Settles Hollinger Suit With $2.8 Million Payment

By: Mark Fitzgerald Former Hollinger International director Peter Y. Atkinson has settled the lawsuit the publisher brought against him last year by paying $2.8 million, the company revealed Tuesday.

In a statement, Hollinger International said the sum "represents 100% of the amounts he received, plus interest, in payments previously characterized as 'non-compete' payments, and under the Company's 'Hollinger Digital Management Incentive Plan.'"
Atkinson, who had remained as an executive vice president until a recent resignation, is the first Hollinger International officer to settle allegations by the company against its top executives.

In lawsuits in Delaware and Chicago, Hollinger International contends former Chairman Conrad Black, former Chicago Sun-Times Publisher David Radler and others received improper and unauthorized amounts through so-called "non-compete agreements" related to the sale of newspapers, and through bonuses paid as part of the digital subsidiary.

Hollinger International said Atkinson's settlement payment included previously disclosed payments totaling $350,000 that were made in November and December of last year.

Atkinson, significantly, was not named as a defendant in the amended lawsuit against Black and others that Hollinger International filed in federal court in Chicago last Friday. That lawsuit charges Black with racketeering and demands $1.3 million. It alleges "the Black group" -- comprised of Black, Radler, Black's wife Barbara Amiel, Daniel Colson and John Boultbee -- "used Hollinger (International) as a cash cow to be milked of every possible drop of cash." The suit claims payments to the group amounted to 72% of the company's profits from 1997 to 2003.

Hollinger International said Atkinson, who could not be reached, would continue as a consultant to the company," assisting primarily on issues relating to its ongoing post-closing adjustment dispute with CanWest." At the center of that dispute are certain management fees paid as part of the sale of Hollinger International papers to the Canadian chain CanWest Global Communications.