Conrad Black Fights IRS Claims
Forbes reports that Conrad Black will contest the latest claims made by the IRS against him:
Imprisoned former media baron Conrad M. Black is fighting a $71 million bill from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, which says from 1998 to 2003 he filed no tax returns and paid absolutely nothing on $120 million in taxable income.
In a previously unreported lawsuit in U.S. Tax Court, Black, now serving a six-and-a-half-year-sentence in a Florida federal prison, is challenging the IRS' demands and asserting the income in question wasn't taxable in the U.S.
Black is not the only convicted former top official of Hollinger being pursued by the IRS. The agency says F. David Radler, publisher of the Chicago Sun-Times for most of Hollinger's ownership, also failed to file returns for the same years, paid zip on $111 million in taxable income and owes $66 million. After admitting fraud and testifying against Black, Radler drew a 29-month sentence but was released after just 10 months. Now running a small newspaper company in Canada, Radler also is fighting the IRS in his lawsuit just filed in Tax Court.
Black and Radler, who both grew up in Canada, contend they were not subject to U.S. taxing authority--despite spending extensive time in the country. Radler ran the Chicago Sun-Times, now owned by bankruptstrong>Sun-Times Media Group< ( SUTMQ - news - people ), formerly Hollinger International (then an affiliate of Hollinger), and was sometimes honored as a leading light in Chicago. Black shuttled between a fancy Park Avenue apartment in New York and an oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach--both now gone.
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