Lord Black, the embattled international media tycoon, yesterday hit back at his gathering critics and told a courtroom that directors of his own company had wrongly portrayed him as an "embezzler".
Lord Black's testimony came at the end of a three-day trial in Delaware, which could determine the fate of the business.
He described how those directors had ambushed him with allegations that he had taken money from the company Hollinger International without approval, allegations that prompted him to stand down as chief executive.
The press baron was in typical eloquent form as he answered questions from his own counsel, saying: "I have been horribly defamed and characterised and stigmatised as an embezzler."
He has filed a separate defamation suit.
The row between Lord Black and the board of Hollinger International, which owns newspapers including the Chicago Sun-Times, the Jerusalem Post and the London Daily and Sunday Telegraph titles, stems from a complaint made by a shareholder last summer, that a handful of executives had pocketed around $300 million (€239.5 million) in fees and one-off payments that were not authorised by the company board.
A special committee was formed to investigate the claims and initial findings in November suggested that the board had not approved at least $32 million in payments to Lord Black and three other directors.
He agreed to step down and repay his share of the money but claimed yesterday that further evidence proved that he had "neither a legal nor a moral duty" to repay it. His share was $7.2 million.
The tycoon produced a series of documents yesterday as well as minutes from meetings at the Hollinger auditor KPMG, which he said supported his claim. Hollinger International has already dismissed many of the documents that bear the signatures of only Lord Black, another recipient of payments, David Radler, and Richard Perle.
Lord Black said he initially supported a package of measures in November, including his resignation, a promise to repay his share of the money and an effective auction of Hollinger International's assets. But without the board's knowledge he reached an agreement to sell his holding company Hollinger Inc, which has a controlling stake in the newspaper business. The current trial is trying to determine whether that sale can go ahead. - (Guardian Service)
