Conrad Black's lawyer calls for stay in OSC case

Conrad Black's long-standing legal battle with the Ontario Securities Commission will continue in October, but the former media mogul's lawyer says he's considering a request to have the proceedings stayed.

Black's lawyer Peter Howard called the proceedings "entirely unnecessary" and said in a brief hearing Friday morning that he was considering a motion to stay or stop the OSC's case.

A confidential pre-trial hearing was then set for Oct. 21.

• Read about Conrad Black through the years

Black, the former head of the Hollinger media empire, was not at the hearing but his two co-accused former company executives Peter Atkinson and John Boultbee were present via teleconference

TheOntario Securities Commission allegesdirectors and officers of Hollinger Inc. and Hollinger International engaged in "a scheme" to line their pockets with company proceeds through a complicated system of "non-competition" payments.

The OSC's case deals with many of the same issues covered by U.S. court and regulatory decisions.

A U.S. court recently gave final approval for a settlement between the U.S. Securities Commission and Black, who agreed to pay US$4.1 million in restitution and abide by limitations on his business activities..

Would block Black from buying or trading securities

Now that the lawsuits in the United States have wrapped up, regulators in Canada are moving ahead with their own proceedings to determine whether Black and his former colleagues should be banned from buying or trading in securities and from becoming directors of a public company in Ontario.

In November, it will be a decade since Black agreed to resign as chief executive of his main U.S. company after an internal review accused him and others of improperly diverting money from Hollinger International to Hollinger Inc.

Hollinger International was a U.S. public company, under the jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Commission, while Hollinger Inc. is a Canadian company under the OSC's purview.

Most of the OSC's original allegations against Hollinger and its senior executives and officers, filed in March 2005, were removed in a revised version issued July 12.

The revised OSC statement replaces pages of allegations from the OSC staff with a summary of U.S. proceedings against Black and two of his former senior executives. However, the OSC enforcement staff reserved the right to bring forward further allegations.

Found guilty in U.S.

Black, Atkinson and Boultbee were found guilty of three counts of fraud each by a U.S. jury in 2007, and Black was also convicted of one count of obstruction of justice.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later tossed two of the three fraud convictions against the men because the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that one of the laws used to convict had been too broadly applied.

Black ended up serving 37 months out of a 42-month sentence in a Florida prison, and was fined $125,000.

Among Hollinger's holdings were the Daily Telegraph, a major London-based newspaper, the Chicago Sun-Times and numerous Canadian publications including the National Post, which Black founded.