Judge: Jurors Can Hear About Conrad Black's Lavish Lifestyle

By: E&P Staff Prosecutors can use Conrad Black's living-large lifestyle against him when the former newspaper mogul goes to trial next March on criminal racketeering and fraud charges, a federal judge has ruled.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy St. Eve in Chicago rejected a motion from Black's attorneys to strike from his indictments references to his wealth and globe-hopping lifestyle that they argued would prejudice his case in front of working- and middle-class jurors.

Defense attorneys wanted St. Eve to strike references to his peerage in the House of Lords, to his mansion in Palm Beach, Fla., and posh residences in Britain and Canada, and to expenses such as a $40,000 party for his wife that were allegedly paid by the publishing company he once headed, Hollinger International Inc.

St. Eve ruled that the so-called "class-based allegations" were relevant because they provide evidence and context for the fraud charges. Black and three other former Hollinger key executives are accused of plundering Hollinger of more than $80 million through improper fees, insider contracts and other means. Hollinger, the publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times, is now known as Sun-Times Media Group.

St. Eve did strike a reference in the indictment to Black's renunciation of his Canadian citizenship. Black, who was born in Montreal, renounced his citizenship after the then-Prime Minister Jean Chr?tien refused to allow him to accept the peerage offered by the United Kingdom that gave him the title Lord Black of Crossharbour.