Is the Conrad Black trial in Chicago open to the public? (Can the public attend and watch?)?

Answer 1

No. That trial has been closed off to the public except for certain press members. Only immediate family is allowed in the courtroom...

Answer 2

Trial of cases are public in nature. Thus, the trial of Conrad Black is being shown on media like CBC news. Black's entrepreneurship emerged early, when, as a 14-year-old student at Toronto's elite Upper Canada College, he made $1,400 by selling his classmates stolen exams. It got him expelled. In early 2004, Hollinger International removed Black as its chairman and launched a $200-million US lawsuit against him.

The suit accused him of using "sham" accounting to divert corporate assets, and demanded that Black refund all salaries and dividends he collected during the disputed time period. Black countersued.

Black then tried to sell Hollinger's key newspaper titles to Britain's Barclay brothers, but was blocked in court by Hollinger International.

On Aug. 31, 2004, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission made public a damning report by the special committee of Hollinger's board — a report that said Black had run Hollinger like a "corporate kleptocracy."

The report said Black and several other executives took hundreds of millions of dollars they weren't entitled to. It accused controlling shareholders and their affiliates of transferring to themselves more than $400 million in the previous seven years. Black sued the special committee for defamation.

In September 2005, former Black associate and longtime friend David Radler pleaded guilty to a single count of mail fraud for his part in a scheme to divert more than $32 million US from Hollinger International. He was given a reduced 29-month jail term in exchange for agreeing to testify for the U.S. government.

Black's Toronto-based holding company, Ravelston, was also charged and subsequently pleaded guilty — over Black's objections — to a single count of mail fraud.

Black's legal problems turn criminal

The legal proceedings against Black turned criminal in November 2005. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Chicago charged Black with eight counts of mail fraud and wire fraud relating to the alleged diversion of millions from Hollinger International. Black pleaded not guilty and was released after posting a $20 million US bond.

In December 2005, prosecutors laid more criminal charges against him, including racketeering, obstruction of justice and money laundering.

Charges of criminal tax evasion followed in 2006.

Black has pleaded not guilty to all 17 charges, saying he was clearly entitled to the non-compete payments that came his way. Black referred to the allegations as "monstrous defamations." Even some of his critics acknowledge that Black really believes he's done nothing wrong.

But the fall from grace was swift and brutal. Black soon complained that he and his wife had become persona non grata on the London social scene. His newspaper empire — the Daily Telegraph, the Jerusalem Post, the National Post and 500 others — is no longer his. He had to sell two of his homes and mortgaged another to raise money. His legal fights have already cost him $20 million by some estimates and there's much more to come. He faces dozens of lawsuits and civil actions filed by his former companies, shareholders and regulators. His trial will cost millions more.

Ultimately, his fate resides with a jury in a city where he's never lived — Chicago. He'll either walk out a free man or face sentencing as a white-collar criminal in a country that hands out long sentences to corporate wrongdoers. The trial is expected to last through June.

Finally, amid all these legal tangles, Black is also trying to resurrect his Canadian citizenship. In an op-ed piece that appeared the weekend before his trial began (entitled "I am not afraid"), Conrad Black ended the story with the observation, "I have never been happier to be Canadian."