Monday At The Trial

570 News has webbed a story by Romina Maurino, with opening quotes from Conrad Black: "Conrad Black says his confidence that the U.S. government has no case against him remains unshaken and he does not understand 'what any of us are doing here,... I've always said they had no case and nothing has changed,' Black told The Canadian Press on Monday as he headed into a Chicago court with his daughter Alana Black for the beginning of his trial's fifth week." The rest of the report adds details, and background. [Editor and Publisher has an excerpt of it here.]

Paul Waldie, of the Globe and Mail, has reported that the cross-examination of Darryl Sukonick is getting exciting, thanks to some questions asked by Peter Atkinson's lawyer, Michael Schachter. Csr. Sukonick stuck to his earlier testimony through them. Mr. Waldie's report ends with: "Under a final round of questioning, prosecutor Julie Ruder indicated that [other defendant Jack] Boultbee had not read a non-compete agreement in another Hollinger deal that included him and that he did not even know who the agreement was with."

On a BNN interview, aired at about 1:55 PM ET, Mr. Waldie added that the Sukonick videotape ended this morning. He added that a lot of the testimony on the videotape is losing the jurors' attention, but some are writing copious notes, and concluded that he was "reasonably impressed" with the attention paid by them to the tape, all things considered."

Reuters has a report of its own, written by Andrew Stern, which has one of the questions that Csr. Schachter asked of Csr. Sukonick regarding his refusal to leave Canada to testify, after the jurisdiction issue was made clear: "'You did not want to be the next honest lawyer to be charged with a crime for doing something absolutely legal, did you?'." Near the top of page 2, it relays the corresponding redirect question: "prosecutor Judy Ruder asked Sukonick if he would have risked his law license to provide phony documentation for the payments... 'No, of course not,' he replied. "I would never do anything like that.'"

Bloomberg's report, written by Andrew Harris and Joe Schneider, is webbed too. It mentions that the non-compete agreements at the heart of the trial were designed to be enforceable contracts, and not 'wash agreements' that were merely bonuses in disguise. It adds an item about Csr. Sukonick himself: "Sukonick said that at his own request, he is not currently dealing directly with any of the firm's clients."

The updated version of the same report has details on the testimony of the next witness, William "Bud'' Rogers, a lawyer with Cravath, Swaine and Moore. On direct examination, Csr. Rogers testified that he was convinced that Csr. Sukonick has given bad advice to Hollinger International: "'I was shocked to hear'" what Sukonick had advised, he said. The report also mentions that Csr. Rogers was involoved in a refinancing that Hollinger Int'l was pursuing, a point that is bound to come up during cross-examination.

Ms. Maurino's report has been updated too. It re-caps Csr. Sukonick's testimony, with an evaluation that he wasn't that effective as a prosecution witness. It also mentions that the jury became more attentive when Csr. Rogers took the stand, and that he appeared "friendly and confident" when prosecutor Jeffrey Cramer began questioning him. "Rogers became involved with [Hollinger] International when Atkinson hired him to deal with the sale of American Trucker, a free periodical available at U.S. truck and rest stops, to Primedia Inc."

The Belleville Times-Democrat has webbed the Associated Press wrap-up of today's testimony, which covers all of it. The testimony of Csr. Rogers is reported in some detail: he testified that disclosure of the non-compete payments was obligatory, and that failing to do so would put the company at risk of a being liable for a civil judgment in its shareholders' favour. "'Those payments were required to be disclosed,' he added, saying he told Kipnis that 'this (disclosing the non-competes) is not a close call.'"

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A trivia item: Argus Corp, the holding company that Conrad Black took over in 1978, still has preferred shares trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Yahoo! Finance Canada has pages on all three of them: the Argus Corp. Ltd. Class "A" $2.50 preferred, the Argus Class "A" $2.60 preferred, and the Class "B" preferred.

On those listings, all of the three have "N/A" in the dividend-and-yield box...not good for preferred shares, whose value primarily comes from the their dividends.