Hollinger Ex-Exec Says Board OKd Payments

Hollinger International Inc.’s board and the company’s auditor, KPMG International, approved much of the $400 million in contested payments to former Chief Executive Conrad Black and former President David Radler, Radler said.

A special Hollinger board panel alleged this week that Black and his longtime deputy, Radler, engaged in “aggressive looting” of the Chicago-based publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times and Jerusalem Post.

The two former executives siphoned off $400 million in cash, or 95% of the company’s net income over a seven-year period, the report said.

Radler called the panel’s 513-page report “highly inaccurate and defamatory.”