Tuesday's motion

CTV NewsNet has aired an interview with David Akin, at 12:30 PM ET, whose report included the factoid that lead prosecutor Eric Sussman has a 95% success rate. The witness who is now on the stand was called by Jack Boultbee’s counsel. Judge St. Eve will rule later today on the defense request to put Radler on the stand. Conrad Black's butler may appear on the stand Thursday, but for now he’s on hold. The end of Conrad Black’s defense, except for closing argument, will be at the end of this week.

BNN had another interview, aired at 1:45 PM ET; this one was with Paul Waldie. In it, Mr. Waldie reported that there's more action outside than inside. Two of the defense witnesses were a professor of law from Osgoode, testifying on Canadian tax policy, and a compensation consultant there to testify on the noncompete payments. The latter witness concluded that they’re in line with industry norms, but Jeffrey Cramer on cross-examination said that the expert didn’t know all the relevant facts about how all the non-compete agreements were put together. The most interesting event to watch for is Mark Kipnis’ motion to dismiss the charges against him. Judge St. Eve has called for a special meeting regarding that motion, to make the prosecution justify the charges against Mr. Kipnis.

A Bloomberg report, by Andrew Harris and Joe Schneider, begins with: "Former Hollinger International Inc. Chairman Conrad Black and ex-finance chief John Boultbee received fair payment for an agreement not to compete with buyers of company newspapers, a witness at their fraud trial said." The executive-compensation expert, James Reda, testified that "CanWest's noncompete payments to the four Hollinger executives comprised only 2.5 percent of the total transaction value, while other comparable transactions produced a range of 0.12 percent to 24.62 percent.... [and] that Black and Boultbee received fair pay for their 2000 agreements not to compete with the Birmingham, Alabama-based Community Newspaper Holdings Inc., when it bought $90 million in Hollinger assets." As Mr. Waldie himself had indicated, though, he did concede that he was not asked to study the non-compete agreements for two other sales of newspapers. (Those would be the sale to Paxton Group and the larger one to CHNI.)

Mr. Waldie's report from this morning, webbed by the Globe and Mail, has some additional details on Mr. Reda's testimony tacked on to its end. "James Reda, a New York-based compensation consultant, showed the jury an analysis he had done of non-competition agreements in 25 transactions. He compared those with the non-compete agreements and related payments in the Hollinger case. Mr. Reda concluded that the Hollinger agreements and payments were not unusual and in some cases had more restrictive provisions.... Prosecutor Jeffrey Cramer[, though,] questioned Mr. Reda's analysis, noting that he included one deal worth $56 billion which skewered the calculations."

The same Bloomberg report, now updated, has details on the testimony of the Canadian tax expert, "Canadian corporate tax law professor Jinyan Li who said noncompete payments received by Black, Radler, Boultbee and Atkinson were tax-free because of a 1999 Canadian federal appeals court ruling." The non-compete payments would be legitimately tax-free "'as long as the contract is bona fide and legally enforceable,'" according to Professor Li.

An Associated Press report, written by Mike Robinson, starts off by noting that Judge St. Eve considers the trial to be running on schedule, which means that the defense will be finished by the end of this week and closing arguments will be through with as of next week. It also relates that the jury is being excused for tomorrow's session "because more defense witnesses won't be available until Thursday." She will announce Thursday morning whether or not Conrad Black's defense team can call David Radler to the stand. Near its end, it notes that Mr. Reda "acknowledged that he never had delved into the allegations of fraud that the government says underlie the seemingly innocent deal." Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Financial Times has written a background report on David Radler, as webbed by MSNBC.com.

----------

Matthew McClearn, in the Canadian Business Black trial blog, has a report which notes that Kenneth Whyte had covered for Donald Trump regarding the business legitimacy of the birthday party: "Whyte also waxed about the benefits of hosting large, star-studded parties. It’s good for publicity, he said, when powerful and influential people attend. And it helps executives and journalists make contact with the shakers and movers of the day. This testimony lent credence to Black’s claim that the shin-dig at La Grenouille (for which International paid about two-thirds of the total bill) had a relevant business purpose." His more lengthy discussion of the cross-examination of Mr. Whyte, though, ends with the conclusion that the shoe was on the other foot regarding this expert witness for the defense. (Mr. McClearn also notes that the $100,000 bonus paid to Mr. Whyte was suspected of being in breach of a non-solicitation clause of the non-competition agreement that Mr. Black had signed for CanWest.)

The South African paper Mail and Guardian has a report that contains quite a few quotes from Conrad Black's statements made over the course of the trial. It also has some interestingly exotic language at the front of it. I can't think of any other report that describes Mr. Black himself as having "a broad face, as impervious as an Easter Island monolith and nearly as motionless; he expresses himself by tiny adjustments in the narrowness of his eyes. In court in Chicago, where he is facing up to 101 years in prison for fraud, he assumes a detached, sceptical air.

"Then there’s his third expression, a feline look of pleasure, eyes almost closed, which is rarely seen these days, but which will return, presumably, should he be acquitted of all charges."...


The following challenge, from the Toronto Life Conrad Black trial blog, is too good not to pass along: Douglas Bell is offering to personally deliver a "Conrad Black Will Win" T-shirt to the doorstep of the person who can explain, in the comments section of that post, what possible good re-calling Fred Creasey to the stand will do for the defense. This challenge, I will throw to the reader.