U.S. Wants To See Hollinger's 'Black Boxes'

By: Mark Fitzgerald In one of the more curious episodes in the ongoing saga of alleged fraud at Hollinger Inc., Conrad Black and two other men were caught on videotape removing 13 boxes from its downtown Toronto offices, months after the one-time newspaper mogul had been forced to resign from the company.

Days later, he returned the boxes to a court-appointed receiver for the holding company that controls a majority voting stake in Hollinger International, publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times.

Now U.S. prosecutors want to peek inside the boxes.

In a motion to quash filed Wednesday in federal court in Chicago, Hollinger Inc. attorneys revealed that the U.S. prosecutors pursuing Black and other "Inc." and "International" executives for multiple counts of fraud issued a subpoena on Jan. 5 demanding Inc. turn over the contents of the boxes.

Inc. contends the subpoena should be quashed because it does not follow procedures laid out in a treaty between Canada and the U.S., or in Canadian law.

Because Inc. is a Canadian company with no U.S. operations, the company argues, any subpoena must first be approved by the Canadian Ministry of Justice.

A hearing on the motion is scheduled Friday before U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve.

In a videotape that surfaced during legal proceedings in an Ontario court, Black is seen pointing to a security camera while removing the boxes. An Ontario court had ordered all parties not to remove records from Inc. offices.

Black has said in the past that they contained only personal effects, but he has not elaborated on the contents.

The subpoena from the U.S. District Attorney demands all "original documents and personal effects" in the boxes.