Missing media baron is indicted

Conrad M. Black, who stepped down as head of his media empire in 2004 amid charges that he and other executives looted the company, was indicted on 11 counts of wire and mail fraud in Chicago yesterday.

US Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said the high-living Canadian -- who renounced his citizenship in 2001 to accept a British lordship -- helped steal $51.8 million from Hollinger International Inc., which at one point had owned the Chicago Sun-Times, Jerusalem Post, and London Telegraph, as well as a majority of Canada's English-language papers.

Fitzgerald issued an arrest warrant for Black, 61, whose whereabouts are unknown. He faces up to 40 years in prison and $5 million in fines if convicted.

''Officers and directors of publicly traded companies who steer shareholders' money into their pockets should not lie to the board of directors to get permission to do so," Fitzgerald said in a statement. ''The indictment charges that the insiders at Hollinger -- all the way to the top of the corporate ladder -- whose job it was to safeguard the shareholders, made it their job to steal and conceal." A 2004 Hollinger investigation found that Black and other top officials pocketed more than $400 million in company money over seven years.

Also indicted: former Hollinger chief financial officer John A. Boultbee, executive vice president Peter Y. Atkinson, and general counsel Mark S. Kipnis, as well as Ravelston Corp., a Canadian holding company controlled by Black.