New Questions Over Bonuses Hollinger Paid to Executives

[Judi Lynn]

New Questions Over Bonuses Hollinger Paid to Executives
By GERALDINE FABRIKANT

Published: January 12, 2004


A unit of Hollinger International made bonus payments totaling $3 million in December 2000 to Conrad M. Black, Hollinger's former chairman, and two of the company's other top executives, wiring the money to the Caribbean unit of a Canadian bank.

The complex transaction, recorded in documents described by people close to the company, sheds light on at least one way Hollinger paid Lord Black, through a transfer that also could have reduced taxes on his compensation. Other payments by the company in recent years to Lord Black and other top Hollinger executives were also made through wire transfers to the Caribbean, according to several people with knowledge of the transactions.

Corporate compensation experts and tax lawyers say there does not appear to have been anything illegal about the bonus payments and transfer in December 2000. But some corporate government experts say that the payments and their handling indicate unusual methods of compensating the managers of a public company based in the United States, and yet another way in which Hollinger executives have been rewarded. (snip)

Hollinger International, based in Chicago, is a media company whose newspapers include The Chicago Sun-Times, The Daily Telegraph of London and The Jerusalem Post. Lord Black, Hollinger's controlling shareholder, resigned as chief executive on Nov. 17 after an internal investigation disclosed that he and some of his partners had received millions in unauthorized payments. He remains chairman.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/12/business/media/12hollinger.html?pagewanted=1