WASHINGTON, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Britain's Conrad Black is denying that he and his inner circle sucked $400 million out of Hollinger International in an orgy of greed and tastelessness.
The denial follows a report by the former head of the Securities and Exchange Commission into Black's stewardship of the global newspaper group, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Black resigned last fall over allegations he and a few other corporate and board cronies gave themselves $32 million of unauthorized payments from Hollinger.
But the report by Richard Breeden, former SEC head, says the actual amount looted was more than 10 times that amount.
Here are some examples in Breeden's report:
-- $24,950 for "summer drinks;"
-- $3,530 for a corporate jet's silverware;
-- $42,870 to celebrate the birthday of Black's wife at New York's La Grenouille restaurant with 80 guests, including Oscar de la Renta, Peter Jennings, Charlie Rose, Barbara Walters and Ron Perelman; and
-- $28,480 for three dinner parties for director Henry Kissinger and his wife.
Black and David Radler, Hollinger's former president, "made it their business to line their pockets at the expense of Hollinger almost every day, in almost every way they could devise," said Breeden's 513-page report.
