Hollinger Int'l Receives SEC Subpoena

[E_Zapata]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=580&e=3&u=/nm/20031119/bs_nm/media_hollinger_probe_dc

Hollinger Int'l Receives SEC Subpoena

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. securities regulators have sent a subpoena to newspaper group Hollinger International Inc. (NYSE:HLR - news) amid disclosures of multimillion-dollar payments to departing chief Conrad Black and other top executives, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

SNIP

Black resigned as chief executive of Chicago-based Hollinger International on Monday after the company disclosed he and other executives collected $32 million in unauthorized or undisclosed payments. The company, publisher of the UK's Daily Telegraph and the Chicago Sun-Times, is exploring a possible sale.

SNIP

"We are reviewing a variety of issues concerning prior actions and payments, and our efforts are intensifying as we move beyond recovery of these payments to an even broader spectrum of concerns," he said.


The Chicago Tribune, citing a government source close to the investigation, also reported on Wednesday that a separate SEC probe is expected to focus on Hollinger's board, which has come under fire for allegations of lax oversight of deals that personally benefited top executives.

Board members include such luminaries as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former Assistant Defense Secretary Richard Perle.

more.......

DON'T MISS THE LUMINARIES THAT SIT ON THE BOARD, WHO FACE AN INVESTIGATION............

[Spazito]

1. Please let this snowball into hell for these slimeballs!

For that creep Conrad Black to resign under the cover of night means there is serious stuff happening. He is the most arrogant *sshole you would find and he would brazen it out if they didn't have him dead to rights. I only hope he drags the rest of them down with him.

[E_Zapata]

3. Yeah, Black gave his comment today from TORONTO........

He not only resigned......he escaped across the border!!!!!!

[Spazito]

4. It's amazing, he gave up his Canadian citizenship, trashed Canada yet

there he is in Toronto! Well, he can't claim a Canadian's right for protection and I LOVE it!

Edited to add: Canada should declare him persona non grata and boot his ass out!

[E_Zapata]

5. Yeah, throw him out as a neighborhood beautification program!

That's the ticket!

That IS sweet.......he denounced canada and his citizenship. He was really thinking that this USA place was ultra cool.....so much fun, so much money.

The party is over Connie!

[Spazito]

6. He is a British Lord now, so let him go to his new home and stop..

stinking up Canada. I wonder what kind of protection he would have against extradition in Britian?

[bemildred]

2. Awesome.

[Nlighten1]

7. It seems like to me...

They are going after some of these people because..

1. They see a real problem with the market.

2. They want to clean things up but they want to do it on "their" terms and not give the Democrats a chance to throw the book at some corporate criminals.

I predict slaps on the wrists for these guys.

[NashVegas]

10. I Say #2

I don't see the SEC in this adminstration initiating any real conflict with Kissinger and Perle, does anyone else?

There may be a hint of #1 however - if they can't show they're "cleaning up" (even if it is a joke) Wall St., how the hell do they expect Social Security privatization to be pushed through?

[Don_G]

8. He Can't Sit It Out In Canada

Canada is cooperating with the investegation. It looks like he pulled some stuff there too.

[jbutsz]

9. Luminaries

The fact that people like Henry Kissinger and Richard Perle sit on boards of the MEDIA which "informs" us, ought to be an obvious clue that we have a press of collusion in America, rather than a free one.

[IndianaGreen]

11. Maybe a liberal will buy The Jerusalem Post before Murdoch buys it

It doesn't do any good to get Rupert Murdoch to buy The Jerusalem Post from Hollinger. Conrad Black brought some American rightwingers to run the Post when he bought it.

From The Guardian:

Hollinger scandal deepens with SEC subpoena

Dan Milmo, media business correspondent
Thursday November 20, 2003
The Guardian

The financial scandal engulfing Lord Black's newspaper empire deepened yesterday after the US financial watchdog served subpoenas on Hollinger International.

The Securities and Exchange Commission demanded information from the group, which publishes the Daily Telegraph and the Jerusalem Post, after an independent committee established by the Tory peer unearthed a series of unauthorised payments to executives.

An official investigation by the SEC was considered inevitable after the committee, led by former SEC chairman Richard Breeden, informed the regulator of its findings last week.

Shareholders in Hollinger had been calling for an official SEC investigation since May, when it emerged that Lord Black and several Hollinger executives had received nearly $300m (£180m) in management fees and non-compete payments from rival publishers since 1995. The SEC acted when Hollinger admitted on Friday that a further $32m in non-compete payments had been passed to Lord Black and his associates and had been kept secret from investors.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/presspublishing/story/0,7495,1089083,00.html