Black trial to go to jury today

Jurors are expected to get the Conrad Black case today after several days of closing arguments.
Black, the former CEO of Hollinger International, is charged with looting the company of millions of dollars to fund his lavish lifestyle. His attorneys contend Black was simply benefiting from legal agreements:

In more than 25 hours of closing arguments, defense lawyers said the opposite was true, that all money given to Mr. Black, 62, and the others resulted from legitimate agreements. The payments were properly disclosed to company directors and shareholders, they said, and if the payments were questionable, they stemmed from bad advice by outside lawyers and were missed by auditors. The other defendants are a former vice president, Peter Y. Atkinson, and a former chief financial officer, John A. Boultbee. F. David Radler, the former president, pleaded guilty and testified against Mr. Black, his former partner.

Hollinger, now renamed the Sun-Times Media Group, once held The Times of London, The Jerusalem Post, The Chicago Sun-Times and scores of smaller community papers.

Among those community papers, for a time during the 1990s, were The Carthage Press and the Neosho Daily News.