By Dave Carpenter
Associated Press
Wednesday, June 27, 2007

CHICAGO, June 26 -- The fraud trial of fallen media mogul Conrad Black and other former officials of Hollinger International moved close to going to a jury Tuesday as the defense concluded a week of closing arguments and the lead prosecutor pressed one last time for guilty verdicts.

U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve was set to give instructions to the jury Wednesday, setting the stage for deliberations to begin after a 3 1/2 -month trial featuring about 40 witnesses and thousands of documents.

Wrapping up an estimated 25 hours of closing arguments by defense lawyers, the attorney for Mark Kipnis, former Hollinger corporate counsel, portrayed his client as an innocent outsider who made a "bad mistake" in not seeking approval from Hollinger's audit committee for $9.5 million in management fees from newspaper sales.

Kipnis did nothing illegal and did not help create a paper trail to cover up the payments, as the government alleges, said the attorney, Ronald S. Safer. "Not his finest moment but certainly not a crime," he told the jury.

The government has failed to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt that he was part of any scheme, that he intended to cheat anyone," Safer said.

Black and two other former Hollinger executives, John Boultbee and Peter Atkinson, are accused of swindling the media company out of more than $60 million through the sale of small newspapers in the United States and Canada. Kipnis is accused of helping to arrange the transactions. All have pleaded not guilty.

Eric Sussman, the lead prosecutor, said as he began his rebuttal to the defense that he would not apologize for calling David Radler, Black's long-time partner, as a witness even though he is "a criminal" and a liar.

"We didn't pick the star witness," he said.

Wheeling around, he then pointed at the defendants one by one and said "Conrad Black picked him. Peter Atkinson picked him. John Boultbee picked him."

Black, who sat impassively and twiddled his thumbs during the morning session, looked away with a disgusted expression as the prosecutor singled him out.

Radler, who was second-in-command at Hollinger, has pleaded guilty. In return for his cooperation and testimony at the trial, he expects to get a 29-month sentence.

The former Hollinger newspaper empire, which once extended to large dailies in Canada, London and Jerusalem, now consists of the Chicago Sun-Times and about 100 small newspapers in the metropolitan area. The company has been renamed Sun-Times Media Group.