Ex-Hollinger audit committee chairman only read draft reports
Further revelations about finance team at Conrad Black trial in the US
Further revelations about finance team at Conrad Black trial in the US
James R. Thompson, the former chairman of Hollinger International’s audit
committee, has testified at the trial of Conrad Black that he only ‘skimmed’ key
documents filed with SEC.
Thompson, who was also the Republican governor of Illinois for 14 years, said
he reviewed drafts of the company’s financial documents but had not read them
paragraph by paragraph.
He told US Attorney Eric Sussman, that he trusted the documents because they
were prepared by Hollinger’s senior management and legal counsel.
‘If anything was amiss, in any of them, I would have assumed they would point
it out,’ Thompson said.
Black, 62, and three other former Hollinger executives -Peter Atkinson, Jack
Boultbee and Mark Kipnis – have all pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud and
racketeering.
Further reading:
Hollinger audit committee had no finance experts’
Hollinger auditor faces the heat
Black trial resumes with focus on audit
committee
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